Monday, February 15, 2016

Telstra offers "Free Mobile Data Sunday" - one users gobbles up 421GB of data


Australian telecom operator Telstra offered a free mobile data day, and there was one user that certainly took them on that offer, downloading over 420GB in 24h.

As a way to compensate their customers over a network outage during the week, Telstra announced a "Free Mobile Data Sunday" where everyone could use as much data as they wanted. The initiative was a success, with customers using over 1.8PB of data, double of what would be the normal amount for a Sunday. But the most curious part is that a single user gobbled up 421GB of data.

One Telstra client seems to have really taken up Telstra on that offer, and gobbled 421GB of data in a single day - probably because his 4G connection allowed him to download stuff at over 167Mbps (which probably is higher than his fixed internet connection at home). Apparently he downloaded the entire 25 seasons of the "How It's Made" TV show, and downloading his entire Steam game library as well, with over 170 games (considering some games can easily use up dozens and dozens of GB, it's not that hard to reach that total amount.)

... More surprisingly, Telstra seems to have let him done so without enforcing any "acceptable use" clause. Which is kind of a good thing, as it allows them to come out of this initiative unscathed. But in any case, I think next time they decide to repeat a free mobile data day, it's almost certain they'll include some sort of limit to prevent this sort of (ab)use.

3 comments:

  1. From the screenshot, it looks like he downloaded it over 2 sundays
    Also, the 420GB is only 0.0234% of the total 1,8 PB so it does not take up much from the total amount :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, at first I had (wrongly) thought the total data had been 1.8TB, even after fixing for PB, the phrase remained. :)

      Delete

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Amazon Store