Does anyone know if there’s evidence of positive price elasticity in the wireless data market?

Intuitively, this should be the case… but is it?

Maybe operators have worked out thay may as well hold the line on pricing… then when the good phones and apps come along we’ll all feel better about it.

I have an HSPA test unit from T-Mob and it can do all those things. But I haven’t paid for it — perhaps you need a more expensive plan for the good stuff.

“To ensure a high quality of service for all our customers, they are not to be used for other activities such as (but not limited to): modem access for computers, internet based video/audio streaming services, peer to peer file sharing, internet based video download and internet based telephony. If such use is detected, notice may be given, after which network protection controls may be applied which will result in a reduced speed of transmission.”

Orange’s flat rate data plan has similar conditions. Granted, we haven’t seen what conditions 3 are going to set for this new service yet, but from what I’ve seen so far it looks like a better choice. And since 3 have been testing HSDPA upgrades on their network in Central London since June, it shouldn’t be long till we see some HSDPA-Compatible phones in the X-Series range (Nokia N95 let’s hope).

How does ¬£12 and ¬£18 compare to T-Mobile’s ¬£7.50 for Web’n'Walk?

Kudos to T-Mob for setting the benchmark. 3 need to come in around this level.

Oh, and it needs to launch HSPA.

Overall, the concept is a good one. Let’s see if 3 fluffs it at the last minute, or if they’re really going to stand behind what they pitch.

-gabe

Tier 1: Web browsing, email, IM, Skype
Tier 2: Rich streaming media / placeshifting ie Orb & Sling

Not sure what happens if you sign up to Tier 1 and there’s streaming elements in a web page – could just be it’s downgraded in QoS or bitrate.

Also not sure where other IP traffic from downloaded clients will go, eg VPN, other IM, packet VoIP etc.

I’ll have a wild guess at the two tiers being ¬£12 and ¬£18 / month, with 300M and 2GB caps respectively… anyone else want to take a punt?

Dean

Very ironic it comes from 3!

In reply to Anders comment above I would say that though we need to wait and see what nasty “fair use” conditions etc. they put in, they do say that “what‚Äôs free to use on the internet should be free to use on mobile broadband” which is a fairly strong pointer.

Geoff.

It looks like they mean “flat-rate” on a per application basis – so you pay X amount per month for unlimited Skype, or X amount for Sling Media.

3 says its partners will be entitled to a cut of the revenues from users accessing their services.

If it turns out this way, it’s not flat-rate as we know it. It’s an interesting approach, however.

More from me here: http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=110879

-Gabe