In article <1725530149.7756.1452359589375.JavaMail.mhammett@ThunderFuck> you write:
Bytes uploaded and\or downloaded. That's all that should matter. Initiated by you or not.
As should be obvious to people on NANOG, of all places, mobile networks and fixed networks are different. On a mobile network, every bit of infrastructure you use other than your phone is shared and tends to be heavily used. Metered usage makes economic sense, although it's well documented that users hate it and would rather pay for a fixed bundle even if on average metered would be cheaper. On fixed networks, a significant chunk is unshared (such as the wire to your house) and while there may be hotspots, there tends to be a lot of slack capacity within the network. That means that fixed network traffic outside of peak times literally costs the network nothing.
I have never seen or heard of any utility meters being replaced or calibrated. I suppose they should upon reasonable demand, but I've never seen it regularly done anywhere.
Now you have. When I was municipal water commissioner, one of our annual tasks was to buy new meters to swap for the oldest ones. Water meters have a lot of moving parts and when they get old, they tend to underreport usage. R's, John