Should We Have Fixed Price Mobile Contracts?

[slitchfield]

Ewan's on a train speeding down from bonnie Scotland but he's still found time to set up a Friday rant. Ewan reckons there's a gap in the market for a network operator to set up a 'no surprises' all inclusive 'flat rate for everything' plan. Your comments welcome, this one could run and run.

Read on in the full article.

[bartmanekul]

Trouble is, your then paying so much extra for those that use it more. Or, vice versa.

Which it might be good for people on a large wage, I cant see many people wanting to do it. Its much easier to get a feel for your minutes, texts and data usage and just keep within your freebies. And stomach it when you go over.

Its quite a lot like the ISP market. There are those offering flat rate services, but they cost huge amounts extra, and the most popular ones have restrictive caps and are cheaper.

[Veeoh]

Most definitely.

I would even go so far as to say I would pay a bit extra each month to guarantee that there were no surprises...

The biggest rip offs are 0845/0870 numbers, they never come out of your inclusive minutes and operators seem to think they can get away with quoting pricing as 'from 5p-2.50 a minute',
Oftel seriously need to jump allover that bullsh1t.
Even 0800 numbers get charged way above what they should.
I never ring these numbers from a mobile and it's a good idea to keep saynoto0870 bookedmarked through Google optimiser.
You can even dial the search results direct from the browser, which is very cool indeed.

http://www.google.co.uk/gwt/n?u=http...m%2Fsearch.php

[svdwal]

If there's one thing not going to happen, it is such a fixed pricing scheme. Punters will love it, of course, but it will mean much less money for the operators.

Churn will not be reduced as it will be easier than ever to choose the cheapest operator. The only thing that will happen is a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.

Having a gazillion different pricing schemes is, economically seen, the best way to ensure you make as much money as possible. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cournot for the economic theory behind it.

£40 or £50 per month for a phone? They can stick that. I pay a mximum f £5 on PAYG, voice, data, text included. You can do a serious lot for just £5.

HSDPA data is already only £7.50 per month for those on contracts so the other £40 is virutally limitless unless you talk in your sleep and need someone to hear you.

[viipottaja]

If I am not mistaken, here in the US Sprint (or was it someone else.. ) was just advertising a $99/month fixed price plan. I just a TV add of their new CEO walking on the street introducing the plan (what a weird ad.. I don't want to see the CEO, I want to see shiny happy people). I am sure there is some small print there somewhere, but the basic idea at least seemed to be what you are saying.

[Bassey]

Whilst it might be attractive to certain consumers (although I don't know many people - who pay their own bill - who would be happy paying £600 a year for a mobile, or nearly £2500 for a family of four!!!!!!) operators will never be able to do it because their costs are not fixed. Termination charges mean they can never know how much a customer is going to cost them - particularly with roaming.

We live in a complex society where simple solutions will never fit everyone.

And I'm with unregistered. I'm on PAYG. £5 a month for data, £14 to buy 400 texts (which will last me minimum 2 years) and tuppence happenny on calls. So less that £6 a month and I never have to think "oooh, should I call such and such on the mobile or wait 'till I'm at a landline". I just use it when I feel like it.

[bartmanekul]

Its not actually possible.

You cannot introduce a flat rate monthly payment, because some people will just use huge amounts.

And to counter this, theres 2 things that will happen:

1. The price covers this, so it will be well in excess of £100 per month.

2. They is a fair usage policy, or its capped. In which case, its just like all the other contracts you see, except they might not tell you what your limits for calls/texts/data is.

So your either going to be paying so much per month you dont care about charges anyway, or you'll be constantly worried you go over some hidden fair use account.

Ya, I luv to have that type of tariff, so that I need not carry my two mobiles now...

But the problem is, the subscriber base will decrease, for example, We have one mobile (or sometimes more) for each person... Then it may become "One mobile for each family" or even "One mobile for each appartment"...

I think you can understand, what I am trying to say... ;-)

For example, Me and my 10 friends sharing a room can share the above said 50GBP rent as 5GBP each, and use that as PublicPhone for LOOONG and COSTLIER calls and use personal numbers just for incoming....

;-) In any way that wud be very funny and No operator will have guts to do so, IMHO...

Anyone care to name the carrier that charges only £5 for data?

My mobile bill is uniformly £24 per month which comes with 200mb of data, which i only use for email and the odd browser task, and plenty of free mins and text for my usage.
I was stung with a bill for £79 last month and it was a single call which pushed up the bill, a friend had moved to Ireland and I had called him back after we got disconnected.
No warning that the call was expensive, no strange ring tone.
A total flat rate would take away these opportunistic revenues. Sickos

[slitchfield]

I thought Ewan's rant would get you talking! For what it's worth, I'm also a PAYG advocate, at least now that every decent phone has Wi-Fi. I spend about £10 a month on ad-hoc short calls, texts and data - if I do use the latter, it's capped at £1 a day, which works out great for day trips etc. 99% of my online use (in terms of bytes) of S60 phones is via Wi-Fi, either at home or in offices or via open hotspots.

I suppose I could sign up to a cheap contract, but I'd rather have the total freedom that PAYG offers, swapping SIMs and phones at will.

Steve

come to the US. We have had fixed price contracts for years -- at rates that would make Euros blush. I pay $40 a month for 1200 daytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend starting at 7. Unlimited data is $25 a month extra if you want. Nationwide roaming. Oh, and they throw in 500 SMS messages in for free.

If I wanted to go international, my options do go down. AT&T does offer an international blackberry plan, $80 a month all inclusive, that includes unlimited international data use. Voice roaming, I think, you will still pay for. Verizon has a similar blackberry plan -- included international data -- on a dual CDMA/GSM blakcberry -- although I think it is $130 a month.

Not to mention EVERY US carrier is now offering UNLIMITED voice minutes for $100 a month.

Greeting from the mobile backwater.....

[sturgeon]

(There had to be one)

50/50 ?

A fixed payment for unlimited data - then pay as you go for calls, texts etc.

I would willingly sign up for something like it. I'm on payg. I make some calls and send some texts every month - but would love an unlimited data plan above all else!

s.