illuminating science

I’ve had two examples recently where basic maths has come in rather handy, and strangely (or not) both were to do with Telstra, which is the Australian telecommunications company and generally all-round not-such-nice guys. The first, and somewhat mundane, example is a new search service - ring the operator, ask for what you need and they find it and connect it for you. The advertised rates are “20 cent connection fee, plus four cents per second with the operator”. Now, at first glance this seems quite reasonable - until you perform some simple multiplication and realise that it’s 20 cents plus $2.40 a minute! That’s comparable with “psychic hotline” rates - for a search service?!

The next was almost straight out of a high school exam. I rang Telstra to see if there was a cheaper plan for my new home phone, and the woman I spoke to said “Wellllll, there is a plan that’s $9 cheaper a month, but the calls are 30c instead of 20c. So if you make more than a call a day, you’re better to stay on your current plan.” Hang on! I jotted down two simultaneous equations, and when I worked out how many calls I’d have to make for the expensive plan to be worthwhile it was about 90, or 3 calls a day! I posed this to my “customer service assistant”, and she proceeded to argue it with me! Now, while she might not be able to do maths on the fly, she represents Telstra and is selling these plans - surely one could expect her to know the difference between the two and when to offer which?! Even when I finally wen thtrough the maths with her (10c extra a call, I’d need ninety calls to add up to $9) she refused to believe me (though I admit, maths over the phone is tough!), and insisted if I made one call a day I’d be better off paying them lots more money. Hmmm. In the end I gave up arguing with her, and said “Put. Me. On. The. Cheaper. Plan.” and she finally agreed. But what a lot of effort!

A final example, which doesn’t apply to me but is still of issue, is broadband suppliers like Telstra which offer “cheap” broadband, say $30/month for 200mb of download. At first glance this seems like a good deal, until you realise that 200mb is probably enough to check your email and read the news, and not much else - certainly not their streaming video and music downloads that they advertise so boldly! And so here’s the catch - they charge, say, 5c per megabyte for your extra downloads - that’s $50/gigabyte! Originally, they could do this indefinitely and charge the careless user (i.e., parents with kids) hundreds of dollars, but the Australian telecommunications regulator stepped in and put a stop to that. Now, it’s capped at say $70, after which they drop your speed back to early dialup speeds. On broadband, it’s ridiculously easy to download that much, and you’d be much better off going to a $50 plan straight up with a cheaper supplier, but this time they want you on the cheaper plan!

So the point of all this is that I’ve been studying maths for years and I’m good at thinking on my feet so was able to argue for the best deal for me. But what about your average person who really didn’t like simultaneous equations? Telstra, and so many other businesses, are relying on your ignorance to support their business model. And it’s not just maths - think about people selling magnetic therapy pillows (no scientific evidence anywhere from anyone for anything to do with magnetic healing) or the various get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, or even just trying to get a realistic picture of the pros and cons of genetically modified foods. And I think this is why it’s so important for people to be aware of science (and maths) - you don’t have to be able to do research, but just be able to sift the wheat from the chaff. Hey, it might even save you money!