Software architect working in Symbian/S60 area since 2000 and still being enthusiastic about mobility. Please visit my introduction page on Forum Nokia Champions web page.
Cost monitoring
tote_b5 | 02 February, 2007 10:44
I've started wondering just recently why there is no support at all for cost monitoring on our phones? Okay, on S60 phones there are two applications where you can monitor
- how much time you've spent with speaking on the phone,
- how much data you've up/downloaded.
You've spotted that neither tells how much money you'll have to pay at the end of the month, right?
Obviously, one of the main reasons why there is no such an application on your phone is that there is no such application on the market. Neither built in your phone. Is it that simple, huh? Not really. Let's think about it how our application should work:
- it either keeps track of how much time you've spent with speaking (you called someone or someone called you while you're abroad) and also monitors how much data you've exchanged (up/download, SMS, MMS, etc.).
- or connects to your operator's site and download data from there.
Let's examine these two options in more depth:
- Keeping track of everything on client side: it makes sense to do it as most of the required features are already present. I guess, at least as I presume here that the APIs Logs and Connection Manager applications make use of are publicly available. What is missing, though, the information that could be used to figure out the actual costs. Okay, the tariff could be retrieved from various places and eventually could be typed in into our fictitious Cost Monitor application as well, but first users are usually pretty much lazy to do that, second it's not even trivial to find out which rate we should apply when. For example, how do you know what rate to apply when you're abroad? You can't expect that the user will do all these operations as it's pretty much laborious. Even I would not do that. :- Not to mention the fact that even though it's kept track of e.g. how much data you've downloaded, but I doubt that I could figure out which bearer (e.g. 3G, WLAN) I used each time. As usually we use public WLAN service free of charge or pay for it when we're there, I wouldn't like to see those figures in my calculations. And I'm sure that there are other issues as well that we would need to tackle to get a correct end result.
Briefly: it would be pretty much challenging, if not impossible, to write such an application and even if it was possible it would put a big burden on users' shoulders to manage the application.
- On the other hand, if Cost Monitor application was only a thin client that could connect to the operator's site, then we could put all the burden of implementing the calculation logic on operators' shoulders (can you imagine an operator with shoulders?:). Which, in fact, has already been implemented as operators always know it pretty well how much money they can pull out from your pocket. I guess, some of you have already found it out that there is a little problem with this approach. Not implementation-wise, but from strategic point of view. And well, the problem is not only little, but HUGE: operators will never make such a service (e.g. a Web Services API) available publicly. It's simply not in their interest as it might inspire their clients (i.e. us) to have better control over their costs.
Finally, I did not go into details as to the features of our Cost Monitor application. The obvious one would be to give visual representation of the user's costs. A non-obvious, but very useful, one would be to be notified upon reaching/approaching a pre-set limit. I'm sure that everyone can immediately see why this feature would be opposed by operators - whose help we would rely on, btw.
Looking forward to your comments!
Tote
- how much time you've spent with speaking on the phone,
- how much data you've up/downloaded.
You've spotted that neither tells how much money you'll have to pay at the end of the month, right?
Obviously, one of the main reasons why there is no such an application on your phone is that there is no such application on the market. Neither built in your phone. Is it that simple, huh? Not really. Let's think about it how our application should work:
- it either keeps track of how much time you've spent with speaking (you called someone or someone called you while you're abroad) and also monitors how much data you've exchanged (up/download, SMS, MMS, etc.).
- or connects to your operator's site and download data from there.
Let's examine these two options in more depth:
- Keeping track of everything on client side: it makes sense to do it as most of the required features are already present. I guess, at least as I presume here that the APIs Logs and Connection Manager applications make use of are publicly available. What is missing, though, the information that could be used to figure out the actual costs. Okay, the tariff could be retrieved from various places and eventually could be typed in into our fictitious Cost Monitor application as well, but first users are usually pretty much lazy to do that, second it's not even trivial to find out which rate we should apply when. For example, how do you know what rate to apply when you're abroad? You can't expect that the user will do all these operations as it's pretty much laborious. Even I would not do that. :- Not to mention the fact that even though it's kept track of e.g. how much data you've downloaded, but I doubt that I could figure out which bearer (e.g. 3G, WLAN) I used each time. As usually we use public WLAN service free of charge or pay for it when we're there, I wouldn't like to see those figures in my calculations. And I'm sure that there are other issues as well that we would need to tackle to get a correct end result.
Briefly: it would be pretty much challenging, if not impossible, to write such an application and even if it was possible it would put a big burden on users' shoulders to manage the application.
- On the other hand, if Cost Monitor application was only a thin client that could connect to the operator's site, then we could put all the burden of implementing the calculation logic on operators' shoulders (can you imagine an operator with shoulders?:). Which, in fact, has already been implemented as operators always know it pretty well how much money they can pull out from your pocket. I guess, some of you have already found it out that there is a little problem with this approach. Not implementation-wise, but from strategic point of view. And well, the problem is not only little, but HUGE: operators will never make such a service (e.g. a Web Services API) available publicly. It's simply not in their interest as it might inspire their clients (i.e. us) to have better control over their costs.
Finally, I did not go into details as to the features of our Cost Monitor application. The obvious one would be to give visual representation of the user's costs. A non-obvious, but very useful, one would be to be notified upon reaching/approaching a pre-set limit. I'm sure that everyone can immediately see why this feature would be opposed by operators - whose help we would rely on, btw.
Looking forward to your comments!
Tote
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Re: Cost monitoring
hartti | 02/02/2007, 18:35
I do not know the world-wide situation, but at least the operators in Finland have quite extensive "get to know your costs" and "limit your costs" -services implemented using for example through SMS messages and Internet portals.Hartti
Re: Cost monitoring
tote_b5 | 02/02/2007, 23:53
First, it's not the same here in Hungary. My operator doesn't provide such a service. I may call them to ask my balance, but that's it.Second, the point is that I would like to have a single, easy to use application that reveals me everything about my costs. No need to browse my SMSes to find out the current balance, or visit web sites to download couple of 100k of data to find my costs or talk to a lady asking her silly questions. Just the pure data, nothing else. It shouldn't be a big deal, right? Not to mention the fact that none of the aforementioned solutions gives me notification upon approaching a pre-set limit (of costs) that I wouldn't like to exceed.
Tote
Re: Cost monitoring
hartti | 03/02/2007, 03:27
Checked quickly Sonera (one of the big operators in Finland, infact it is now TeliaSonera) web site, and at least they have notification services also. Unfortunately the service description page is in Finnish only.But this does not seem to be very common
Your operator does not provide such services, and I think that Cingular and T-Mobile in U.S. do not have such services either (to some extent, it would be unnecessary, because of the flat-fee pricing they use)...
Hartti
Re: Cost monitoring
tote_b5 | 03/02/2007, 18:51
I've also checked out all 3 operators in Hungary. I'm sure that you have heard two of them: T-Mobile and Vodafone. T-Mobile and Hungary's third mobile operator (Pannon) provides only such service that enables you to connect to their web site and you can ask for information about your account.Only Vodafone provides an extra service (on the top of aforementioned web service) that you can send an SMS to them and depending on the content of the message you receive a message detailing your balance. I think that's a good service.
Nevertheless, it would be much better if there was a common solution (Cost Monitor application on our phones) that would make it very easy and convenient for every user to be informed about their balance. It was, however, good to read that there were operators who provide notification service as well, but I don't think it's too common. Finland is famous of their mobile penetration, which is by far one of the highest - so I don't consider it as a standard. I wish it was. :) Another good point was that such a service doesn't add any value to users having flat-fee subscriptions.
Tote
Re: Cost monitoring
JOM | 08/02/2007, 15:46
Such an application might be difficult to create, since pricing - at least in Finland - is extremely confusing . Your expenses depend on your contract type, who do you call, how much data you already have transferred, group discounts, special weekend discounts, discount coupons etc.
It's close to impossible to even compare what kind of contract is best for you inside same mobile phone operator, not to mention trying to compare two or more different operators! Furthermore nowadays (Finnish) operators are even sending bills afterwards, since they hade mistakes in the original bills!
They don't know themselves what are your costs =-)
It's close to impossible to even compare what kind of contract is best for you inside same mobile phone operator, not to mention trying to compare two or more different operators! Furthermore nowadays (Finnish) operators are even sending bills afterwards, since they hade mistakes in the original bills!
They don't know themselves what are your costs =-)
Re: Cost monitoring
tote_b5 | 08/02/2007, 16:04
That's why I think it would be best if operators opened up an interface for which we could write an application. All the knowledge about calculating prices accurately is on their side, so imho this would make the most sense. On the other hand, if they themselves are not fully aware of costs - then the situation is hopeless. :(Anyway: "Szia Jouni!" :)
Tote
Re: Cost monitoring
mazenn | 16/04/2007, 11:06
you'll need a billing engine on your mobile phone if you're going to know the exact costs. I think all the costs will be based on the tariff of the plan.
I am sure there's a way around it
I am sure there's a way around it
Re: Cost monitoring
tote_b5 | 16/04/2007, 11:32
I'm not that confident. First, it's a very difficult task to figure out which number to use from the tariff when. Second, e.g. as to data up/download - how do you know if you have to pay for your operator or not? If it's a WLAN connection, then you *might* not need to pay for it to the operator. And in general: it's a very complex calculation that you should perform and as such really prone to calculation errors. I pretty much prefer the second option, when you pull out some data from the operator and build some local service (i.e. service on your phone) around it.Tote
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Software architect working in Symbian/S60 area since 2000 and still being enthusiastic about mobility. Please visit my introduction page on Forum Nokia Champions web page.
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Re: Cost monitoring
njzk2 | 02/02/2007, 11:29
I apparently don't have it, as i receive a "Not Allowed" error message on every option of this function.
Yet, there must be something to be found there.