On HTTPS and Hard Questions
Tim replies to the post last week from Eric around HTTPS and the negative impact it can have on users who are accessing content through a proxy thanks to their situation (expensive data, high packet loss, low caps). This is a problem that we need to discuss more and find a solution to, and as Troy Hunt pointed out in another response the first step is for everyone to reduce the size of your webpages. That act in itself helps reduce the requirement for the proxy for data saving in the first place.
I was thinking about this issue myself recently. I live in a small town and our mobile data connectivity is a bit spotty, to say the least. I use T-Mobile, which is normally excellent. In my little town, however, that’s not the case. Recently, it seems T-Mobile has partnered with someone local to provide better and faster data connections. But it’s all roaming. T-Mobile doesn’t charge for that, but it does cap your mobile data usage. After you exceed 2GB in a given month, you’re cut off. In the few months since the data has become available, it’s a number I’ve exceeded more than a few times.
An excerpt from On HTTPS and Hard Questions
