Vodacom takes aim at BlackBerry 'abusers'

Vodacom plans to throttle the connection speeds of the heaviest users of BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), which offers unlimited on-device browsing and email access on BlackBerry smartphones.

BIS has proved popular in the South African market, especially among youngsters, because it provides fixed-cost internet access for a low monthly fee.

Vodacom says it “studied usage patterns to better understand the causes of congestion at peak times and one surprising finding was that more than 95% of BlackBerry data usage was attributable to less than 5% of users”.

Chief technology officer Andries Delport says Vodacom needs to “ensure that all BlackBerry users are able to enjoy the service that they pay for”.

“When we realised that such a small minority was using the bulk of the capacity, we decided to implement measures that will ensure that BlackBerry users will enjoy a better browsing experience overall,” Delport says.

Vodacom says “steps have been taken to ensure that the 95% of the BlackBerry users who are currently using the service fairly are not impacted by those who are abusing the service”.

“The 5% of the base who are not using the service for what it was intended will have their connection speed reduced from 3G to 2G levels.”

Only BIS users who have reached a 100MB threshold per month will have their connection speed reduced from 3G to 2G levels. Blackberry Enterprise Users will not be affected.—Staff reporter, TechCentral