Should the download size, measured in KBs, of a downloaded Web page be
the same regardless of the carrier and cellular phone model used?
During a trip to Israel in November 2006, I rented Motorola i760
phones from Amigo, which provides cellular service through MIRS
Communication Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola Israel. We
were quite pleased with the quality of service and the coverage
provided.
Unfortunately, I just received a bill from Amigo, which charged me an
astronomical amount for Web surfing (yeah, call me a junkie, as does
my wife, along with some other choice names). At my request, I
received a detail for the data charges, which indicates that each
visited Web page equaled exactly 4KB of data. Most of my browsing was
BBC-Mobile News, where the standard format is primarily text, with
maybe a tiny graphic. I was not downloading music or video files.
I used my US cellular phone -- a Samsung A707 Sync, with service
provided by Cingular -- to download many of the same (or similar)
pages as listed on Amigo's detail, and my phone indicated that these
pages seemed to average around 1300-1500 bytes, less than half what
MIRS/Amigo claimed.
Is it possible that the size of the same (or similar) Web page could
vary so much between carriers and cell phone models? If not, I think
MIRS or Amigo may be engaging in some questionable billing practices.
Thanks in advance.
Al
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