There are variations in the service availability and

data plans provided by operators around the world,

with both factors impacting subscriber behavior. This

section focuses on the effects of data plans on traffic

volumes and application use. The measurements

are made using a deep study analysis of one mature

operator’s 3G network over one month. The results

presented here are for mobile PCs only.

The monthly

traffic resulting from applications such as online media

and file sharing increases in line with volume data plan

caps. Web browsing is the exception here and reaches

a saturation point at the 5-10GB data plan cap (i.e.

users on the 5-10GB and 10-20GB data plans use

around the same volume for web browsing).