One of the elements that is undoubtedly holding back heavier use of the mobile web is the cost. It’s been a bit of a theme here at MobHappy that mobile browsing is not only expensive but the cost is shrouded in mystery - it’s like going to a restaurant and only being shown the prices at the end of the meal. Is that sandwich going to cost a couple of bucks or £85 ($157), like the one pictured above and recently launched at Selfridges in London?
The solution to this is the fabled all-you-can-eat data plan, which is more prevalent in the US and the main reason why we’re going to be left behind in Europe unless we make some changes. However, going from where we are now to the other extreme might be difficult to swallow for mobile operators. While I can quite happily promise them more money in the long run by getting people to rush to use the mobile web, what do I know?
So I was thinking. How about having a data plan - a bit like friends and family calling plans, that prove to be both successful at stimulating more calls of all types, as well as being popular with customers.
What the operator would do is allow people to nominate their top 10 web sites they want to use. All data charges when using those sites would be free, or available for a nominal charge - $2 - $5 a month, say.
If people don’t really use the mobile web right now, no problem. The operator can tell them the top 10 sites on their network generally, or if they get clever about it, based on the user’s profile.
As people start to use the mobile web more, they’ll find out more and more sites they want to visit, tell their friends about the experience and start sharing good mobile websites. Then they’ll find that 10 websites is no longer enough and you hit them with an all-inclusive plan where operators can make some money, if they don’t get too greedy.
But the all-inclusive can be decided later. For now, let’s put the mobile web in danger of being used, or more importantly, being used more frequently. It’s time to let mobile data usage finally explode.
Does anyway know of anything similar to this being launched or proposed? I don’t pretend to be the fount of all knowledge, so please leave a comment if you know something I don’t or have an opinion on this you’d like to share.
top idea and I know it would certainly push a lot of my tight friends and colleagues to expand beyond their initial “circle” once they’d enjoyed the benefits for a month or two.
Annoying Three in the UK allows you to pay a few quid a month and get ‘unlimited browsing’ to their predfined (and rather limited) list of mobile websites.
However, T-mobile UK is offering unlimited data for £7.50 VAT per month. I’m absolutely loving it at the moment. I think I sent about 200 meg yesterday alone
An interesting idea! It could be coupledt with a web interface were people can register their 10 sites they want to check out from their mobile and let the network then filter this content. That way everyone is sure you don’t something you aren’t aware of that you have to pay for later. Personally I prefer the T-mobile web’n walk approach or the 25 Euros for 1 GB of traffic Wind in Italy is doing with prepaid cards (without any restrictions what you can and can’t do). I like the 10 prefered sites idea because that could get people started for a reasonable price.
Martin
Vodafone in the UK are giving away free access to their web sites (live!) and are now providing a wholesale service to some partners (only MoS so far) that allow the partner to provide free data to their customers. A small step towards what your describing.
Great idea! I was looking at the new Widsets client today, which has a really neat menu which shows you data consumption so far, per widget. I was thinking, ‘great, but i have no idea what my network is charging me per Kb because of their complex pricing, this only tells me half of what i need to know”.
Allowing customers to build their own list of free content could also help the carrier learn more about what content is actually of interest to their customers, helping them strike better content distribution deals with content publishers. That might drive costs per Kb for content down overall, while driving revenue up, as carriers sign up the content that really works for their deck, versus the content which has been most aggressively pitched to them.
wouldn’t the smarter people simply put a proxy site onto the ‘friends and family’ list of sites?
putting skweeer on the list for instance?