Aliv defends service against complaints of fast data loss

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

ARE you losing data too quickly? The problem could be your phone’s Wi-Fi settings or usage habits, says Dwayne Davis, Chief Information Officer for the Cable Bahamas Group of Companies.

Mr Davis said Aliv’s network is not responsible for quick data expiration, an issue about which customers sometimes complain.

“We have been advised by persons where they said, ‘my data went fast,’ or the data would go after they would have paid for data,” he said yesterday. “Upon investigation, we realised that the usage was valid.”

“A lot of the data usage, for example, is updates. If you’re an iPhone user, as you know, Apple pushes out a lot of updates and then people would backup to iCloud. So it’s been scenarios like that where we’ve had those type of scenarios from persons.”

Mr Davis said Aliv’s network is fast, which may mean data usage happens quickly.

“I think because of the speed, persons use quite a bit of data,” he said. “What we actually did last year was we actually slowed down our network to try and minimise it.

“For example, you go on YouTube or you go on Instagram and the performance is excellent. So the more you do, the more you go, the more you go, so we actually slowed down the network to try and accommodate it, because the data would go fast.

He added: “There’s really nothing wrong with our network. I think the persons’ usage habits really plays a role.”

Mr Davis said one customer reported that 90 per cent of their data was used up 20 minutes after a plan was purchased.

“For that particular user, what happened was at midnight, Apple does updates,” he said, “so when I did a deep dive on that particular user, we realised that all of the data uses were valid. They were specifically to iCloud or Apple updates.

“So what will happen is that if an update was running on your mobile and you run out of data, if you were to replace that data, it would finish the process, but you need to look at the plan that person is using. So if you buy a $6 plan, that’s like three gigabytes of data.

“So for that particular case, on midnight, they would have used 1.7 or 1.8 gigabytes, which is more than 50 per cent of the three gigabytes they would have bought.

“So, every concern, I personally investigate it with my team, and we verify that it was actual data usage.”

He said users should check their phone’s Wi-Fi settings.

“Another misconception is that persons feel that because they’re home on Wi-Fi, that they’re not using data,” he said. “Now here’s the thing, with an iPhone or high-end Android, like a Samsung, they will use the stronger network.

“So if you’re on Wi-Fi and your Wi-Fi signal is weaker than the cellphone signals, it’s automatically going to defer to the stronger connection, but there are settings that you can actually change to force it to only use Wi-Fi. So it has nothing to do with the system. The system doesn’t steal data. The system is not configured to take your data. Those are all valid use cases.”

Comments

bcitizen says...

Had a unlimited mobile plan (really 300gb) with aliv for 3 years. The most I would use is 30-70gb a month. Last December with no habit changes it used over 300gb and I was charged for two extensions above the 300gb on a post paid plan. No one can explain to me yet where the data went. Sorry very tech savy person here, and yes there is some weird stuff that goes on on their network.

Posted 11 August 2023, 3:43 p.m. Suggest removal

Sickened says...

Can you please reset the network to normal speed??? Why must we all suffer because the $6 top up guy wants his data to last an entire month????? Why not educate the masses instead of making the system crap for every single person.

It's like lowering the speed on the highway for everyone because someone speeds and crashes into a tree.

THINK!!!!!!

Posted 11 August 2023, 3:43 p.m. Suggest removal

xtreme2x says...

This setence here tells you where the problem lies...And it is with ALIV.

Mr Davis said Aliv’s network is fast, which may mean data usage happens quickly.

***#“I think because of the speed, persons use quite a bit of data,” he said. “What we actually did last year was we actually slowed down our network to try and minimise it.***

#“For example, you go on YouTube or you go on Instagram and the performance is excellent. So the more you do, the more you go, the more you go, so we actually slowed down the network to try and accommodate it, because the data would go fast.

Posted 11 August 2023, 4:54 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

I believe what he's saying is because of the network speed streaming quality has improved so instead of using low data services like reading articles you may watch more movies. 10mins watching a movie would eat up more data than 10 mins reading news articles

Posted 12 August 2023, 10:14 a.m. Suggest removal

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