Skip to main content

Expect to Pay More for Your Mobile Internet Access

As the Mobile Internet becomes a greater part of most people's daily online lives, telecom regulators are monitoring service provider attempts to increase revenue by manipulating data service plan pricing.

Why would mobile network operators risk creating the environment for additional regulatory oversight? They're following the usage trends of the experienced smartphone subscriber, and they know the future mobile data traffic predictions.

The aggressive deployment of LTE networks has encouraged higher data consumption, providing an opportunity for mobile operators to focus on introducing mobile plans with a higher data quota.

According to the latest market study by ABI Research, countries that have a monthly data quota in the range of 8 to 10 GB have increased from 21 percent in 1Q 2014 to 83 percent of the total in 2Q 2014.

Facing a downward trend in ARPU, mobile network operators are in search of solutions to boost their profitability. The introduction of multi-tier, multi-device shared plans allow mobile operators to target different customer segments more effectively, and in some cases, increase the price.

What's prompted this latest move. Savvy mobile subscribers have discovered they can use over-the-top messaging applications, such as the WhatsApp Messenger, and thereby reduce or remove the service provider fees they've previously paid for text messaging.

"This shift in monthly data quota provides an opportunity for mobile operators to actually revise their pricing strategy," said Lian Jye Su, research associate at ABI Research.

This change is being reflected in an average increase of 11.31 percent in the monthly tariff in the top 20 markets. In Canada, all three major mobile operators increased their price by $4.50 -- despite offering an identical data quota (limit) before the price hike.

On the other hand, 'unlimited' data plans are slowly disappearing, dropping from 50 percent in 1Q 2014 to 27.6 percent in 2Q 2014. Instead of affordable single-device data plans, major mobile operators in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia are offering multi-device data sharing plans.

For example, U.S. Cellular focuses its pricing strategy solely around data sharing plans and has increased its prices significantly.

ABI believes that a shift toward shared data plans signals the mobile operator's marketing strategy to tap into increased data consumption. Personal mobile plans have reached market saturation and service providers are keen to search for other growth segments in the market.

Mobile network operators are also introducing new 'customizable' personal plans. In Singapore, SingTel launched Asia's first post-paid mobile service that allows complete customization of voice, messaging, and data services. On the other hand, Virgin Mobile introduced a customizable prepaid plan with Walmart in the United States.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Global Digital Business and IT Consulting Outlook

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year