I know. I should have been clearer.

The point of my comment was simply that when referring to a "per kilobit/byte" rate I would refer to them as "data usage rates" or "network usage rates" rather than "network transfer rates", as this phrasing (to me, at least) implies a measure of speed.

I guess my other inadequately articulated point was that in our society's vernacular, people tend to refer to a 20 Mbps connection as "20 Megabit", even though this is technically incorrect. Consequently, most regular people really only hear and use the terms "kilobit", "megabit", and "gigabit" in ways related to data transfer speed.

In retrospect, I should have been clearer. However, my point still stands. All the providers I've checked (in addition to the aforementioned AT&T) bill in Kilobytes and advertise speeds in Kbps.

VZW: "The speed of the Verizon Wireless data network is measured in Kilobits (kb) per second. However, the amount of data transmitted over the Verizon Wireless data network is measured in Kilobytes (KB), Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). " -- http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=planFirst&action=viewPlanList&sortOption=priceSort&typeId=5&subTypeId=13&catId=409

Sprint: "Data: Services are not available with all Sprint phones. Usage is calculated on a per kilobyte basis and is rounded up to the next whole kilobyte." -- http://nextelonline.nextel.com/en/legal/legal_terms_privacy_popup.shtml

Except network transfer rates == speed. Network transfer rates != volume.

Furthermore, according to their site, they charge by the Kilobyte (KB), not the Kilobit (Kb): http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/popup/dataconnect-comp-table.jsp

"1,024 kilobytes (KB) = 1 megabyte (MB). For coverage information and maps, please see a sales representative or visit att.com/wirelesscoveragemap or att.com/wirelessbroadbandconnect."

"CANADA AND INTERNATIONAL ROAMING: Additional data for Canada roaming per KB is $0.015; International roaming per KB is $0.0195."

Except their legal mumbojumbo on all their pages clearly says kilobyte... so either their system is off by an order of ~12.87 in its data transfer measurements or as you posit here, they are charging in kilobits AND their published rates are wrong -- it should be $0.00015/Kb, not $0.015/KB.

9GB of data is 9,437,184 KB. The numbers don't add up.

".015 cents": 9,437,184 KB * $0.00015 = $1,415.5776
"a penny and a half": 9,437,184 KB * $0.015 = $141,557.76

Since the published data roaming rate in Canada is $0.015/KB, let's go with "a penny and a half".

$11,000 of usage at $0.015/KB equals 733,333.33333333...KB or 716.145833MB.

So not only do they not know the difference between a cent and a dollar, but their system for measuring data transfer is also off by a factor of ~12.87... unless they somehow billed him for .015 cents and then tacked on 10k in fees...

Maybe you've voluntarily limited your right to dictate what is done with that information. What are the terms of the contracts that the customers signed? Are they being honored by the company's actions? If not, I'd say it's class action time. Personally, I think this program was an experiment by the Government to see what kind of carrot they would need to provide in order to get people to voluntarily give up any sort of privacy. No tin foil hat necessary for this one.

Obvious troll is obvious.

...is a spoiled fsckstick who thinks he's entitled to a $100k salary right out of college simply for existing. During my time in this industry, I've worked with the some really good engineers. They were the ones who were willing to go twenty extra miles when you only asked for one. Unfortunately, they were also the ones who wanted to know business and technical justifications for their assignments (to the consternation of business majors everywhere, who all seem to simply be lemmings that do what they're told because they were told).

I've worked at way too many companies where IT Engineers were expected to be brilliant and insightful in the field or in design meetings but leave their brain at the door when it came to bullshit company politics, outright lies told by executives, and the utterly unbalanced compensation plans forced down their throats by companies.

Fsck that shit. I spoke up at my last company about all of these things and was told to STFU a number of times. Right before I quit, I spent two months putting together a 50 page reorganization plan (in consultation with middle and senior management across the company) in response to the internal griping about inefficiency and mismanagement in the consulting practice of which I was a member. This document was reviewed and discussed several times a week, and everyone was 1000% on board with my suggestions.

I finally quit when I presented my final draft to the same people that I had developed it with and the "official" response was that they thought the document was full of good ideas that would definitely resolve the problems we were facing with relatively little effort, but unfortunately many of the ideas were very radical for the culture of the organization and nobody had the fscking balls to stand up for what was right and stop pissing away money that could be paid to the engineers on lost contracts and wasted time due to territorial pissing matches.

The fact that American Engineers are independent thinkers who will ask their management to justify why they should work 80 hours in a row to meet an arbitrary deadline is a good thing. If you want the IT equivalent of a grocery bagger then please, by all means, outsource your work to Accenture so they can pay some poor Indian bastard $5 to churn out code that doesn't even compile correctly.

Wow... Gopher... that takes me back. Anyway, check out this list. Looks like all on this list are still active.

Thanks for the looking into this in more detail.

Did you happen to catch their Privacy Policy that the NYDN has apparently taken it upon themselves to accept on our behalf?

Information obtained by virtue of your visiting TYNT web sites When you use TYNT Products, we will collect the following information:

1. The Internet domain and IP address from which you access the TYNT Products;
2. The type of browser and operating system used to access the TYNT Products;
3. Screen resolution of your monitor;
4. The date and time you access the TYNT Products;
5. The page you are visiting with the TYNT Products;
6. If you linked to a TYNT web site from another referring web site, the address of that web site.

By using the TYNT Products, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed both within and without the United States of America
By using the TYNT website, you agree to the preceding uses of your information in this way by TYNT.

I don't have a problem with simple statistics trackers, but this feels much different. Now they're tracking what text I copy? As I previously stated, I wouldn't be surprised it these people were linking my IP with my buddy's IP.

Nevermind the security concerns related to allowing an undisclosed third party of dubious credibility and integrity to fiddle with my clipboard, the privacy just set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head.

Worse yet, I can definitely see the attractiveness to advertisers.