Mobile Data Pricing Complexity Set to Increase
Operators in both America and Europe have been moving towards more complex ways of pricing mobile data for the past two years. But the rapid growth of data consumption combined with extremely high data needs of a small group of ultra-consumers are prompting carriers to adopt ever more baroque pricing structures. Companies will face difficult decisions about which data speeds and MB quotas each employees is entitled to have.
The overall US mobile data growth hit 123% in 2011. Cisco has forecast that the growth will top 1’500% between 2011 and 2016. The first response of carriers like AT&T and Verizon was to move away from unlimited data packages and force new customers to choose between different price tiers.
Recent conversations with operator sources indicate that carriers are likely to move to more exotic solutions over the next two years. One likely option is a roll-out of cheap monthly plans with low mobile data transfer speeds. This would enable corporations to push majority of employees into low-cost data plans where accessing email and simple web sites would be easy, but streaming video would be painful or entirely unfeasible.
Another option being researched right now is time-sensitivity. Carriers could charge more during rush hour periods like 4 PM and less during times when networks are not congested. Yet another option is context-sensitive pricing, where streaming video would become a new data category incurring penalty fees.
In any case, companies will face tough choices. Few employees are likely to be happy being pushed into the low-speed category or facing data access restrictions during peak usage hours. Managers may need to weigh what is the utility of video streaming and how relevant that is to the job at hand.
Monitoring monthly usage patterns and changes in operator pricing plans is going to become increasingly important for companies with large numbers of mobile lines.
