In the fifth and final part of a series of Amdocs-sponsored interviews addressing the impact of the mobile data capacity crunch, we talk to Dario Talmesio, senior analyst at Informa, about sender-pays data, tiered data pricing and more.

This series is jointly produced with the talented people at Mobile Entertainment magazine‘s ME TV channel.

[Note, this video was originally published in November 2010. I'm republishing it today to update the video embed properly - Ewan]

In the fourth of a series of Amdocs-sponsored interviews addressing the impact of the mobile data capacity crunch, we talk to Sanyu Kiruluta, head of developer relations at RIM EMEA, and Rupert Englander, head of services & marketing at Nokia UK.

This series is jointly produced with the talented people at Mobile Entertainment magazine‘s ME TV channel.

[Note, this video was originally published in November 2010. I'm republishing it today to update the video embed properly - Ewan]

In the third of a series of interviews addressing the impact of the mobile data capacity crunch, we talk to Nick East, General Manager of OSS at Amdocs, about growth in demand, traffic types and management strategies.

Over to Nick:

This series is jointly produced with the talented people at Mobile Entertainment magazine‘s ME TV channel.

[Note, this video was originally published in November 2010. I'm republishing it today to update the video embed properly - Ewan]

That headline is a direct quote from a radio advertisement I heard just now from the Carphone Warehouse.

Bad news for the market.

Bad news for the data crunch.

Bad news for the end customer.

Very bad news.

It’s bad news because it’s educating consumers that the internet has little value. So little value that you’ll get it chucked in free with monthly contracts starting at just £12. Like the rubbish toys you get in cereal packets.

I understand why Carphone is running the campaign. They’ve probably got some research that shows consumers really don’t like getting data bill shock and that they don’t understand what a meg or a gig means.

It’s laudable. But there’s quite a few problems. You really do need to read the fine print.

For example, the handset advertised on the site is the HTC Wildfire. You can have it ‘free’ on a 24-month contract at £12 per month. Sounds good, that. That’s with Carphone’s own Talkmobile MNVO.

If you opt for a recognised brand like Vodafone, you’ll pay £15 per month for 24-months. The phone’s still free. But there’s NO data allowance at all. If you pay £15/month with Orange, you’ll get 250mb of inclusive data.

So you only get the unlimited deal with Carphone’s operator. Fair enough. But there’s an asterisk. Here it is:

Subject to fair use policy, but the good news is the fair use policy does not apply to Talkmobile ‘Never pay for the internet’ deals.

So if you take out the £12 one from Talkmobile, you’ll be ok. You’ll never pay for the internet.

This sounds like a really good deal, until you try downloading 100gb of data via your handset’s data connection.

I wonder what Carphone would do?

I thought that perhaps Talkmobile was running on 3UK which given it’s substantial investment in mobile data (and relatively low network load) is able to offer unmetered data without breaking a sweat.

I asked around on Twitter (thanks Dan) and apparently Talkmobile is an MVNO running on Vodafone.

Therefore gentlemen (and ladies) if you’d like absolutely truly unlimited data on Vodafone, get yourself a £12/month contract from Talkmobile.

I’ll eat my hat if it’s actually truly unlimited. The fair use policy doesn’t apply, eh?

I wonder.

It’d be super if this was entirely accurate. I wonder if, perhaps, Vodafone (or Talkmobile) will simply hobble your connection if you end up using a ton of data in a given time period? That would make sense.

Ironically it’s this kind of completely transparent ‘unlimited-and-we-mean-it’ that consumers will respond well to. Sadly it’s a bit of a tightrope walk to get what Carphone are advertising. Make one slip up and you’ll be on a 250mb/month price plan with Orange for 24-months.

Anyway, check out Talkmobile’s site here: http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/

One company I met on Sunday morning prior to MWC was apoplectic with rage about Facebook, Google and Apple. I won’t go into detail about the company’s identity except to say they’re a highly influential service provider to the mobile industry.

This company’s perspective was very similar to that of the France Telecom and Telecom Italia Chief Executives (detailed in this post). The collective view amongst many in the mobile operator space is that these ‘b@starding companies‘ (direct quote) ‘are screwing up the network for everyone and not paying a cent toward the network upkeep‘.

It was a fascinating discussion. I listened for a little while before asking this series of questions (I admit to teeing the guy up for the final one):

Q: Do you think it’s unfair that Facebook, Google, Apple and so on are not paying for the use of the mobile network infrastructure?

A: It’s insufferable. It’s ridiculous. It’s outrageous. (I’m paraphrasing his exact words. He used a few F-bombs too — highly entertaining.)

My next question:

Q: But the consumers themselves accessing Google, Facebook and whatnot, they’ve paid their mobile operators for the privilege, right?

A: Yes, but it’s highly irresponsible of these companies to keep on introducing new services that are causing [the industry] to have to spend more and more money maintaining quality of service. (Paraphrasing again)

My final question:

Q: Ok, so how would the industry react if, for example, Facebook simply switched off mobile access for every one of it’s 650 million users and charged the mobile operator £3 per month for the privilege of delivering Facebook content to the consumer?

A: [Silence for a few seconds, followed by a look of horror]

Heh. What happens when Facebook decides to tell the market that it can no longer afford to maintain it’s hugely expensive bandwidth and server infrastructure without the mobile operators coughing up. That could become a rather sticky conversation. Unlikely. But at least the example made this chap — previously apoplectic with rage — sit back and take stock.

I don’t think many people in the marketplace have thought things through when they argue that mobile operators are victims in the ‘data crunch’. It’s laughable that these giants are demanding the biggies like Google and Youtube cough-up when the consumers accessing these services have already paid to do so.

If the model is broken, fix it. Simply doing a T-Mobile and deciding that ‘unlimited’ means 500mb of data per month is silly. And offering ‘unlimited’ 250mb plans is ridiculous. It’s a guaranteed way to ensure consumers think twice about doing anything on their handsets in fear of bill shock.

It’s not about the race to zero. For some reason, the mobile marketplace is consumed with this race to zero. To be the cheapest. To offer the cheapest rubbish because that’s the only thing people will pay for.

Nonsense.

Innovate. Truly innovate. And we’ll see some excitement and delight spreading across the market from consumer to operator.

You can see some of the ideas I’d like to see from operators in terms of innovation here.

Meanwhile, it’s not just me speculating about Facebook. The industry analysts Ovum have been doing so too. I’ll be publishing a post from them on that subject in just a moment.

We have a chance – let’s kill ‘unlimited’ once and for all

The word ‘unlimited’ has been abused too much and too long by telecoms companies to be rehabilitated. It should be killed off now we have a chance.

via Opinion: We have a chance – let’s kill ‘unlimited’ once and for all | Wireless Worker.

What do you think? I reckon he makes a very good set of points, particularly around defining related terms like ‘fair use’.

In Part 2 of our video series focusing on the data capacity crunch, we talk to Sky’s Business Development Director, Emma Lloyd, to find out her perspective on the issue.

Over to Emma…

This series is jointly produced with the talented people at Mobile Entertainment magazine‘s ME TV channel.

In Part 1 of our video series focusing on the data capacity crunch, we talk to o2′s Head of Consumer Marketing, Jonathan Earle to find out his perspective on the issue.

Over to Jonathan…

This series is jointly produced with the talented people at Mobile Entertainment magazine‘s ME TV channel.

So when I got my connection back some time late last week, I was mildly hoping to see something massively interesting to inspire me to write about; some major piece of news – I mean it’s nearly Christmas after all – or just something that might catch my eye.

Now even on my trawl across the internet in search of mobile news, and the latest goings-on in this brilliant segment of society and business I was expecting something.

Did I?
No.

Am I happy?
No.

You see, even I, a relatively technological “young” person/student, who has a keen interest in the world around me, and with Christmas looming just around the corner, just something eh?

Well, apparently not.

Now maybe some good news, and/or surprises are waiting around the corner for the New Year; or maybe something spectacular will happen in the after-Christmas sales. Needless to say though, I was expecting some major news about something; a big price cut, or some other form of attempt to gain more consumer interest in this very dismal financial situation.

I know I’ve said numerous times now about the lack of real spark at the moment, and the generally poor attempts at gaining custom; and although nothing major, I’m quite amazed at how little I’ve read about anything enticing me – as a probable and likely customer – to go and spend money.

Maybe I’m wrong in my presumptions that the mobile market is avoiding the “Credit Crunch” and that when I walked down my high street the other day, Phones4U, CPW, O2, Three, and the numerous other shops which hoard the high street were meant to be relatively empty on a busy Thursday leading up to Christmas?

Hmm…

Well, I’ll try not to be so pessimistic, and I will believe that someone somewhere is planning something out to ensure that the mobile industry remains in-tact.

Now if you’ve ever read one of my rants before, you may be aware that I’m hung up on mainly two things.

The first being the lack of any originality in the Mobile sector (but I won’t go into that now), and secondly, price.

I’m a happy student; I live at home with my Mum, thanks to Ewan I have a job; but I also have quite a lot of expenditure. I fund all my school-books (and the price of them is astonishing), I pay for my own internet; I pay for all my socialising, my mobile, clothes and all the general stuff. Okay, I don’t have a mortgage to pay off; but even so, I’ve had to put off buying myself a car, and getting driving lessons because I simply cannot afford to be spending that much.

Well, I suppose that’s okay. At least I know I have my head screwed on, and I’m aware of my own financial limits. But even saying that, as I’ve mentioned before I really want a new phone – in fact I’ve been looking for something since the summer.

So it a two and half percent tax cut going to affect me buying myself a car, driving lessons, or even a mobile phone at the moment?

Simply, it’s a no.

Now, it’s not that I can’t afford it (because honestly, I can); the point being I know firstly I’m being cheated by mobile manufacturers. The clever plans to get you to think you’re buying into the latest technology to only find a month or so later the same company has released a better mobile, is just a joke.

Secondly, the amount of money I’m prepared to spend on a mobile is around £100, my absolute limit would have to be £120. Even so, two and half percent off of that is only a difference of £3! Now, even with my own self-admitted tightness when it comes to money, three pounds is hardly a noticeable difference now, is it?

Finally, I can happily predict that we’ll see lets say, some interesting sales in the near future. Well, this a blind guess, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t happen (and I don’t mean the normal January sales), I’m guessing there’ll be price reductions, sales, and attempts to move stock out of the back of the shop.

I’m saying this as a seventeen year old that has a job. Quite a few of my friends, also of the same age, in full time education in Sixth Form; who don’t have jobs. They rely on the menial amounts that their parents will spare them each week (which generally gets wasted on booze-ups at the weekend or something); and leaves them with nothing.

In fact, even just trying to get a new top from Top Shop takes a couple of weeks of saving, so think of how long it would take to get a mobile?

So do I think that Mr. Darling is going to spruce up the “young” people of England to be spending more? Certainly not, and I don’t see that this is going to affect the mobile market in any way whatsoever.

Then again, I may be wrong, and two and half a percent will make the world of difference; but if anyone was to work out their actual savings that they’re making by this VAT change, then I’m sure you may well find that it’s not a lot… A couple of pounds at the most!

Send any queries, e-mails or anything to Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com