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When will "unlimited" data be unlimited?
Published by Ewan Spence at 9:13 UTC, October 5th 2009
In theory, the best deal around in the UK for a mobile phone contract is currently being offered by the mobile virtual network run by supermarket chain Tesco – for a flat monthly fee of £30 the advertising offers you “unlimited” calls, text and data. That's an attractive package, especially for those of us on a budget. It might have a lot of small print, but unlimited is where the industry should be heading. Let me explain...
So let's start on those terms and conditions. First up, the £30 unlimited is capped to £500 equivalent value, when your usage is placed alongside the listed call charges... with data at £4 a megabyte that limits your internet use to only 125MB for the month (i.e. only 4MB a day), assuming you make no other calls – you're essentially mixing that 125MB alongside 2,500 voice minutes or 5,000 texts till you reach the capped value.
Putting aside the crazy limits on data, flat rate plans are a great idea for the consumer. They help them budget and can prevent bill shock when the end of the month comes along. Rather than husbanding your phone for emergencies, you can let rip and call and text and you would have to go some to break that limit in a month. A far cry from my first contract which offered me a heady 15 minutes free a month back in the 20th century!
Data is a problem them, because it's becoming a fabric of not just the limited smartphone space, but the mid and low tier handsets. Google Maps, available as a java install for pretty much every phone on the market, downloads the mapping data as it is needed. How long would it take to eat up that 125MB? About as long as it takes you to get to the nearest shopping centre would be my guess [methinks Ewan exaggerates, a local Google Maps journey should only use up a few hundred KB - but I take his point - Ed]
Two things are holding back adding realistic 'unlimited' data (not least that people have a different understanding about the word unlimited than telecoms companies have). The first is physics and the amount of bandwidth available for 3G data connections. Put a large collection of unlimited data handsets in close proximity and the current infrastructure struggles to cope. London has just seen “The Future of Web Apps” conference and the geekerati were out in force. For some reason, O2 was unusable and the reason was simple... the number of unlimited data O2 iPhones. (It'll be slightly better at the Symbian Exchange and Exposition, thanks to spreading data out over half a dozen networks)
The second is partly related to the first. Fear. The fear that opening the floodgates will totally destroy their network and reputation is probably valid given the problems above, but I think they're just going to have to suck it up and get with a program to upgrade their networks and make it work. For all the problems and localised headaches, the unlimited data for the iPhone on monthly (and pay as you go) on O2 has not crippled the network – just pointed out the flaws. For all the problems with that device, Apple the company had enough swagger to force through something unpalatable to the networks, and now T-Mobile/Orange and Vodafone are joining the party. The crack in the door is already there.
And the one thing networks can't do is go backwards.
The situation feels very much like the last days of metered dial-up internet in the UK, back in the last century. The final hold out was AOL, who stayed on per minute charges after everyone else had switched over to a fixed monthly charge. They were worried about the number of modems they had available, that people would get an engaged tone on dialling in, with people just staying connected and doing nothing. The per minute charge was less an income and more a way to try and stop people staying connected.
Hunt around on the network tarriff pages and you'll find offers that help you control the billing of data, for example Orange's up to £1.50 a day for 25MB of data that you can add to a monthly contract or, to a lesser extent, Vodafone's 3GB per month for £15. But they're still limited to amounts of data that you have to monitor, and the costs are still measured in pounds per megabyte once you go over the limits. It's a start, but not ideal.
Tesco Mobile's "unlimited" offer
Technology and traffic shaping have moved on a lot since the millennium, as have customer expectations. You want a prediction? Unlimited data tarriffs will become the norm, probably late in 2010. One network is going to open the floodgates and just go for it as a marketing campaign, and the others will have to follow. The question is which companies are going to stare down each other to be the first to see what happens to their network when they do throw the switch.
-- Ewan Spence, Oct 2009.
News Discussion
In Luxembourg we get unlimited for €30/month with a "fair-usage" 25GB cap :D
Orange is somewhat better as 500MB/month cost 6euros, and after that it costs 0,6euros/50MB.
There's no unlimited data though, even if any MB left after one month will be added to the next months total.
Even if data is only unlimited on internet modems at least it really is unlimited, even if the speed goes down to 128kbps after a few GB per month.
Same for browsing. I spend most of my mobile internet time connected to other people's WLANs so data for me is unlimited. I would still be pushed to hit about 50MB per month according to my counters. So, £30 per month from Tesco would be stupidly expensive. Virgin do 30p per day, so about £9 per month data. T-Mobile do £2.50 per 5 days, which is a good deal because you can just switch it on when you need it.
The answer is to use ASDA. PAYG 8p per minute calls, 4p per text. Internet 20p per MB.
My phone costs about £5 every two months to run, so for me the whole thing is filthy cheap. Rip-off Britain? Not in my case. You just need to be savvy and not just accept whatever deal.
I hope the same rates stay when 3G comes :D
Oh no they won't. They are having a hard enough time keeping up with usage already. The main goal is to keep things running, rather than making the situation worse.
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Originally Posted by D4n958GB
I doubt you are never going to get unlimited data plans because mobile operators will loose too many sales on mobile dongles. If you give us unlimited data or even 3gb a month, mobile dongle sales will fall and everyone will start connecting their mobiles over bluetooth to their laptops, netbooks and even pcs. I would happily pay another £10 month to get true unlimited data plan.
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I have a T-Mobile unlimited contract (in Holland), and as far as I'm aware, it really is unlimited. However, the main problem is the speed. My E90 can handle 7,2Mbps HSDPA but the maximum speed I get is 128Kbps, which is a bit pathetic. You can pay extra for a higher speed (256Kbps I believe), but there is a data-cap; if your data consumption exceeds a certain amount (1,5GB?) then the speed drops to the lower speed for the rest of the month. To be fair to T-mobile, this limit is well publicised, but it does seem like an odd restriction...
Don't forget about tmobile UK. I just upgraded a week ago to an HTC hero on flext 35 o get L.170 to spend on txt, voice, mms, etc for L.35 a month with 1gig allowance, then a pay an additional L.5 to increase that to 3gig with permission to use the sim to tether to pc. And if you co over allotment there is no charge just the speed drops. Just make sure you don't abuse the your usage month after month and there are no charges or permanent drop on speed. Another L.10 increases allotment to 10gig
Use 3 as my data provider.
GBP 5.00 per month unlimited data
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Originally Posted by malerocks
In India, I pay Rs. 350 a month (as per the current conversion rates that comes to around 5 euros) for unlimited data. No capped limits and data is completely free whether its surfing on my phone, downloading or hooking up the phone as a modem and surfing through the notebook. The only downside is we are still limited to EDGE / 2G speeds (although 3G is not too far away).
I hope the same rates stay when 3G comes :D |
Waiting for the Rs. 95 (something around 1.3 EUR) unlimited data plan by TataDOCOMO to come to my state now. 8)
I'm sure the network could handle a lot more bandwidth demand from consumers but it certainly needs to be upgraded as fast as possible. Once someone tries mobile data they won't go back, be it the Kb's used up by Google Maps, or Facebook or checking the train times - more and more people are using data because feature-phones, smart-phones, they're all moving to be connected to the internet, and quite simply, the networks have to be ready for this.
I also find it a bit funny that they bemoan the lack of profits in the UK's extremely competitive market, or cry out that they're not just a 'dumb pipe' but they are a pipe and they've got a commodity that everyone is going to need. If the mobile network is good for anything, it should be for data!
However, it's good to note operators might have data transfer limitations. For example, TeliaSonera's customer agreement says there's a 3GB/month fair-use policy. Although they haven't put this into practice yet. It's just there in case someone would transfer huge amounts of data. They could, for example, set the user on lower priority after that or charge extra fees.
While viisiting Finland recently, TeliaSonera's CEO Lars Nyberg said in the future they may need to move away from 'all you can eat' type pf flat-rate, because "the demand for bandwidth is unlimited". Nyberg did not specify when this might eventually happen or what would the new pricing be like.
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