Direct Push, Do I need it?

[jamiejackson]

Hi all

Some background. I'm a happy k-jam user. I do email, that's good. I send/sync it using active sync or directly over my WiFi at home.

So, all this talk about Direct Push. Sounds good for business users and people who demand their mail instantly. I pay for my GPRS and data costs are still high in the UK, so I scares me to start using GPRS more.

I assume that inbound data (direct push email for example) costs money the same as outbound over GPRS.

Am I missing something? Is direct push a must have for a user like me? There seems to be alot of hype about direct push, was wondering if there was more to it than I assumed.

End of my rambling now. Look forward to the inbound direct push wisdom.

[Sven Johannsen]

Only you can decide if your e-mail is critical enough that it has to get into your inbox the intstant it gets on the server. Are you a fireman, and that is how they contact you in case of a life or death emergency? Are you a billionaire who made all your money buying and selling stocks at a moment's notice and your team of analysts doesn't know how to use a phone? Are you a corporate executive that has so little faith in his staff that absolutely everything that happens has to be cleared through you with an e-mail trail?

Guess you see where I stand. ;) I have always just set the device to pick up mail periodically, every 15 min, every hour, whatever. I figure if there is something that needs my immediate attention, the individual can either call me with the question, or call me to tell me to get my mail now, it's important.

Legions of BlackBerry toting minions though, have made push-e-mail the gold standard, and if you don't have it, by golly, you just can't compete.

[DerekAbney]

Sven- going to have to agree with you here. PUSH email is great for folks that are on the road constantly and need instant notification of office details/memos/etc. For the casual/non-business user its most likely not worth the extra costs. What is the data transfer fee/rate per kb over there?

You guys have 3g and GSM over there (correct me if I'm wrong!), so I would imagine its more like 50p per MB, or is it still measured in smaller increments?

[tvanscot]

It's not just the push... the Global Address list lookup in itself is worth it.

[Sven Johannsen]

It's not just the push... the Global Address list lookup in itself is worth it.

Is push and MSFP required for that? You couldn't do it before? Still that is more of an enterprise requirement. Even with an Exchange Server mail system, it is rare that I want to send to someone that isn't already in my contacts, or isn't listed on an e-mail I have received, either as the sender to whom I am replying, or as an addresee. For small businesses or individuals it's not hard to copy the 'GAL" to your local contacts, and then it doesn't cost you anything to look someone up.

I'm not trying to say push and all that is not needed, or useful, I'm just putting my reality on it. As I get older there are more and more things that I didn't used to have. Some have made my life better, some worse. This is sort of a middle of the road thing to me. Nice, but not something to e-mail home about.

[Janak Parekh]

Is push and MSFP required for that? You couldn't do it before? Still that is more of an enterprise requirement.
I do believe it's new with MSFP, and it's certainly targeted towards the enterprise. The simple fact that direct push requires Exchange makes it primarily targeted to corporate folks.

Even with an Exchange Server mail system, it is rare that I want to send to someone that isn't already in my contacts, or isn't listed on an e-mail I have received, either as the sender to whom I am replying, or as an addresee. For small businesses or individuals it's not hard to copy the 'GAL" to your local contacts, and then it doesn't cost you anything to look someone up.
Right, but the feature is targeted towards corporations that have hundreds or thousands of people.

Anyway, back to push -- as you imply, it depends on your priorities. As someone whose daily workflow revolves around email, direct push is a fantastic addition for me. In academia, there are often scenarios where people essentially do microcommunication over email, and the ability to get the email as soon as it comes in is handy. Not always critical, but quite useful. SMS-push was almost as good, but I find direct push to be more reliable.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

So, all this talk about Direct Push. Sounds good for business users and people who demand their mail instantly. I pay for my GPRS and data costs are still high in the UK, so I scares me to start using GPRS more.
You've answered your own question, then. Direct Push requires a cellular data service (doesn't work over WiFi), and it is pretty data-hungry. Your best bet when using it is to have an unlimited plan. I don't know what the prices for unlimited data in the UK are right now, but I do believe they're slowly dropping. Over on this side of the pond it's pretty easy to get, and is much more popular than metered data plans.

I assume that inbound data (direct push email for example) costs money the same as outbound over GPRS.
Most likely.

--janak

[isajoo]

i seem to be confused... so someone emails you and ur ppcpe gets the email rightaway? does the cellular company charge u for the message rightaway? or charge monthly or a certain quantity of messages? and if u really need to send a message to someone, wouldn't sms text message be fast/cheap/instant?

[jamiejackson]

Interesting stuff guys. You've confirmed what I was thinking, but I thought I'd ask in case there was something magical that I was missing.

As for cost. I'm with Virgin UK and their 'pay-as-you-go' GPRS rate is 0.5p (UK pence) per 1k. I believe T-Mobile have just announced an unlimited data plan for 7.50 UKP per month. Quite good, but I don't need it that much.

Thanks for the debate guys, you've been helpfull.

[Sven Johannsen]

i seem to be confused... so someone emails you and ur ppcpe gets the email rightaway? does the cellular company charge u for the message rightaway? or charge monthly or a certain quantity of messages? and if u really need to send a message to someone, wouldn't sms text message be fast/cheap/instant?

Yes, with push you essenttially get it right away. There is a communication channel that allows the Server to let the client (phone) know ther is new stuff, and it downloads it immediately. That is of course dependent on data traffic and is charged however your data is charged. Could be by the byte (or kilo or mega byte) or it is very popular over here to have unlimited data plans, and they are quite reasonable. Given that, doesn't matter how many e-mails, or how fast you get them.

There was a somewhat similar system before AKU2 where the server would send the phone a special SMS that told it when new mail was available, and the phone went and got it. Still pretty close to real time, but SMS messages are typically billed seperately from data traffic (don't ask me why), and that could potentially get expensive. Again the e-mail is charged in accordance with your data plan, and the SMSs charged according to your SMS plan. Those are typically based on some number of SMSs per month for some set fee.

The old fashioned way of getting mail is to set your phone to go get mail every so often, every 15 min, every hour, twice a day, whatever works for you. At the appointed time, the phone contacts the server to see if there is anything new, and downloads it if there is. There is the data hit each time, more of course if there is something to get.

Sure, SMS is likely a quicker method, but that is primarily for phone to phone use. Sure you can generally send a txt msg to a phone, but you have to send it to [email protected] or something like that instead of to [email protected], and you are limited in what yu can send. E-mail is there for the corporate desk bound worker to send mail to a mobile colleague or vice-versa. It supports more text and attachments as well, and has a built in history (e-mail trail) Beyond that SMSs are billed seperately, and typically a set fee for a set number.

[Janak Parekh]

SMS messages are typically billed seperately from data traffic (don't ask me why)
They use a separate channel (the cellular control channel), and are essentially not data traffic, so they're a completely different pricing structure.

--janak