Surveys by text are a simple and cost-effective way of gathering feed-back. We are now incorporating this into txt4ever, which provides all the tools to set up and run a mobile-based survey.
The mobile user will typically take the following steps:
Sedd an initial text message of the keyword to a shortcode number
Receive an automated reply with the survey questions and insturctions on how to answer.
Send a reply message which is stored in the system and can be exported as a datafile for further analysis.
The system can handle multiple keywords and sub kewywords. For example, if you think xxx reply with survey a. This can then generate a secondary question and so on.
All in all, mobile surveys are a great way to engage and get feedback - it's fast, direct and cheap
Sunday, September 10, 2006
More on data charges
Whilst the mobile phone networks charge between £1-£7 per megabyte of data to download, the actual cost to them is likely to be pennies or even fractions of a penny.
We can now pre-by data, which we can attach to content. The charge for this is around 30p per megabyte. Much less than the charge made to mobile users, but still not sufficient enough to include it in the price of a download.
Fair Data
The concept behind this is to charge mobile a users a fair price to receive data, which is reflective of the true cost to the mobile networks.
We are campaigning to make sure this happens, but until then it will be a case of charging users a small extra fee for receiving that data.
We can now pre-by data, which we can attach to content. The charge for this is around 30p per megabyte. Much less than the charge made to mobile users, but still not sufficient enough to include it in the price of a download.
Fair Data
The concept behind this is to charge mobile a users a fair price to receive data, which is reflective of the true cost to the mobile networks.
We are campaigning to make sure this happens, but until then it will be a case of charging users a small extra fee for receiving that data.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Mobile Data Charges
Sending an SMS to a mobile phone is pretty straight forward. All mobiles can accept them and send them.
When it comes to pictures, sound or video the situation is somewhat different. They can either be sent by MMS or via a link to the file or a wap site.
The link/wap site option is the most straight forward on a technical level - it can be sent in an SMS so it is almost universal for mobile users. The problem comes when the mobile users tries to access the link. Some networks (such as 3) do not automatically enable their phones for wap links, and most require an 18+ registration for non-portal sites.
However once that wap/internet connection is enabled, the problem is the cost of the downloads. On some monthly rental tariffs they allow some data transfer within set limits. Above a few megabytes they start to charge. The networks charge between £1 and £7 per megabyte of download.
So to download a 3 minute song - which is around 3 megabytes the user could pay £21 to their network for the privilage. Of course this is not made clear in contracts or tariffs.
Is there a solution? Well I think there is. In an idea world the networks should offer their data connection in the same way as home internet - just a simple flat rate. In fact if the mobile phone operators wanted to sell shed loads of 3g phones the best way would be to offer the data-connection at a home broadband price - £17 per month with high download limits.
Until then, the option that we are exploring is pre-paying for the data - it is a few pence per megabyte and can be incorporated into our existing system.
When it comes to pictures, sound or video the situation is somewhat different. They can either be sent by MMS or via a link to the file or a wap site.
The link/wap site option is the most straight forward on a technical level - it can be sent in an SMS so it is almost universal for mobile users. The problem comes when the mobile users tries to access the link. Some networks (such as 3) do not automatically enable their phones for wap links, and most require an 18+ registration for non-portal sites.
However once that wap/internet connection is enabled, the problem is the cost of the downloads. On some monthly rental tariffs they allow some data transfer within set limits. Above a few megabytes they start to charge. The networks charge between £1 and £7 per megabyte of download.
So to download a 3 minute song - which is around 3 megabytes the user could pay £21 to their network for the privilage. Of course this is not made clear in contracts or tariffs.
Is there a solution? Well I think there is. In an idea world the networks should offer their data connection in the same way as home internet - just a simple flat rate. In fact if the mobile phone operators wanted to sell shed loads of 3g phones the best way would be to offer the data-connection at a home broadband price - £17 per month with high download limits.
Until then, the option that we are exploring is pre-paying for the data - it is a few pence per megabyte and can be incorporated into our existing system.
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