About time too!
Following a recent report from the European Regulators Group, Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator is too look at the charges for using data abroad.
The average price charged to UK users abroad was over £4 per megabyte, although prices of £7 per meg or more are charged to customers not on special tarrifs. The £4 also takes into account that some operators such as 3 have no roaming charges or lower charges where they have European partners.
Ofcom's Chief Executive acknolwedged that data roaming charges represented a significant barrier to business. With the growth of mobile email and smart phones, such as the i-Phone, it is the roaming charges that is ultimately the barrier to useage.
The report also noted that whilst calling and SMS roaming charges had come down, they are still over 3 times the cost of use at home. Not exactly a bargain.
Ofcom will be looking to see if it has the regulatory powers to deal with data charges
Showing posts with label Mobile data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile data. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
3 and T-Mobile share data networks
Maybe, just maybe, the networks are beginning to take data more seriously. After Orange and Vodfone joined forces, now 3 and T-Mobile are sharing their masts for data:
Read the article here
Maybe now they actually believe that there is value in providing a low-cost mobile data for all users?
Read the article here
Maybe now they actually believe that there is value in providing a low-cost mobile data for all users?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Mobile Content Glossary
Mobile Content Glossary
The difficulty with any new technology or economy are the proliferation of terms and acronyms. The following glossary is intended to cover many of the main terms, but is by no means exhaustive.
3GP – The standard format for mobile video. 3GP stores video streams such as MPEG-4, H.263 or H.264, and audio streams as AMR-NB or AAC-LC formats. 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, so content is correctly sized for mobile display screens.
Aggregator – in the context of SMS and PSMS, an aggregator, such as Mblox, works with the mobile networks to agree shortcodes and bulk SMS routes which are provided to mobile platforms (immedia24)and content providers as single IP connection through their SMS Centre.
Billing Message – see PSMS
Bulk SMS – a common term for text messages bought from aggregators/SMS Centres. These messages are bought in blocks of 1000s or many 1000s at a lower cost than those bought from networks. Bulk SMS is typically used for mobile marketing campaigns and other web-based messaging applications.
Content Platform – or sometimes referred to as a delivery platform, such as . This is software or a web-based application for managing SMS and content delivery such as handling requests from messages sent from handsets. A platform will also provide reports of messages sent and receiving and revenues earned from PSMS.
D2C – Direct to Consumer
Flat Rate Data – see Mobile Data Charges
ICSTIS – The premium rate billing regulator, who are now renamed PhonepayPlus. All providers of PSMS must be registered with them as a service provider. They have the power to raise fines for breaches of their regulations, but only against the service provider and not the content provider – hence the service provider for the Richard and Judy Scandal, Eckoh received the fine, not Channel 4 themselves.
IP – Internet Protocol – any data that is sent or received using the internet.
J2ME – Java-based development language used for many mobile applications, especially games
MMS – Multi Media Message Service – with the advent of colour screens and phone cameras, it was developed by mobile networks as a replacement for SMS. MMS allows the user to send and receive pictures, audio and short video content (around 250k files). The cost of MMS combined with limited user need has seen a relatively small take up, with 100 million messages per month being sent in the UK (around 2% of the SMS volumes).
Mobile Data Charges – refers to mobile operator charges for accessing the internet and email. In effect, to download anything from the internet the user is charged for data. This can be as high as £7 per megabyte and is additional to a PSMS charged by the content provider. Many users are not aware of the data charges until they appear on their phone bill. Recent flat rate data charges – around £7.50 per month for 1 – 2 gig of downloads has alleviated this, but mobile users not on a flat rate plan are likely to be put off downloading content due to the high charges.
Mobile Operating Systems – There are a number of mobile operating systems used by handset manufacturers – Symbian, Windows Mobile, Ajax, Linux. There are other systems specific to certain phones such as the Blackberry and the iphone. The battle for the dominant mobile OS is likely to develop in the next 12 months and the main players will probably be Symbian, Windows Mobile and Google’s Android.
Mobile Operators – are the companies that own and operate the mobile infrastructure – in the UK they are Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Orange and 3. Operators such as Virgin Mobile lease capacity from the main operators.
Mobile Portal – an entry point into the mobile web. The mobile operators run their own portals, and is typically the first point of call for a mobile user logging on to the internet.
MSISDN – the number of a mobile phone. The MSISDN is carried in all SMS and MMS and offers an ideal way to identify a specific user. It cannot be identified when the mobile user is browsing the internet.
Ofcom – The telecoms and media regulator. Any premium rate issues will be dealt with by PhonepayPlus (ICSTIS), but Ofcom will deal with non-premium issues such as SMS spam. Their site has excellent guidance on acceptable usage.
PSMS – Premium SMS – is a message that is charged to the users phone. The charge is on receipt of a message, sometimes referred to as a reverse billing SMS. In order to comply with the regulations, the user must send a request message to a shortcode (a 5 or 6 digit number).
The price of the PSMS is determined by the shortcode number used for the message. These shortcodes are priced at 10p, 25p, 50p, 75p, £1, £1.50, £3 and £5. Billings can also be multiples of the price eg 2 x £1, where the user will receive 2 messages at £1.
Shortcode – a five or six number code for both receiving SMS from and sending Premium SMS to mobile users. Each shortcode is owned by a service provider who aggregates the number across all of the major networks. Shortcodes are country specific and cannot be sent/received outside the country of origin.
SMS – Short Message Service – an SMS is 160 characters of text and 12 characters of header (such as a reply number). Unlike email, for example, an SMS cannot carry additional header information or picture or video content. There are over 4 billion text messages sent each month in the UK – more messages than voice calls made.
SMSC – SMS Centre or gateway. An SMS centre provides a connection between the mobile networks and the internet. They will typically act as an aggregator by offering a single IP-based connection across all networks. They will also set up and get the agreements for shortcodes across the mobile operators.
Subscription/Recurring Billing – is a revenue option that allows the content provider to accept a single SMS request from a mobile user and continue to send messages monthly, weekly or even daily until an opt out or ‘STOP’ message is received. This was commonly used in the ringtone market boom as a method of maximising revenue. However stricter controls have been put in place, particularly with regard to subscription billing from under 16s.
URL Sending – a common method for delivering content by SMS. The text message will contain a URL link, which, when opened will download the content.
WAP – Wireless Application Protocol – the protocol has been widely available since 2000 and was designed to offer a simplified version of web browsing from mobile phones.
Wap Push – or Wap Push Message is a method of delivering mobile content by SMS. The Wap Push is essentially a text message with a URL to the content and configured as a Service Message. It will prompt the handset user to open the URL or download the content. Due to abuse by unscrupulous companies Wap Push can no longer be used in Premium SMS.
Wireless – it used to be the word my grandparents used for their radio! These days it general refers to wireless computer networks, or WiFi. Confusingly ‘wireless’ tends to be the term used in the states for mobile networks.
WML – Wireless Mark Up Language – similar to HTML, WML was designed to be specifically used on mobile. As mobile handsets have developed WML has become less important for delivering web-type content, with XML, compact HTML and HTML also running on many mobile browsers.
© Mark Brill, Ping Corporation Ltd 2007
The difficulty with any new technology or economy are the proliferation of terms and acronyms. The following glossary is intended to cover many of the main terms, but is by no means exhaustive.
3GP – The standard format for mobile video. 3GP stores video streams such as MPEG-4, H.263 or H.264, and audio streams as AMR-NB or AAC-LC formats. 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, so content is correctly sized for mobile display screens.
Aggregator – in the context of SMS and PSMS, an aggregator, such as Mblox, works with the mobile networks to agree shortcodes and bulk SMS routes which are provided to mobile platforms (immedia24)and content providers as single IP connection through their SMS Centre.
Billing Message – see PSMS
Bulk SMS – a common term for text messages bought from aggregators/SMS Centres. These messages are bought in blocks of 1000s or many 1000s at a lower cost than those bought from networks. Bulk SMS is typically used for mobile marketing campaigns and other web-based messaging applications.
Content Platform – or sometimes referred to as a delivery platform, such as . This is software or a web-based application for managing SMS and content delivery such as handling requests from messages sent from handsets. A platform will also provide reports of messages sent and receiving and revenues earned from PSMS.
D2C – Direct to Consumer
Flat Rate Data – see Mobile Data Charges
ICSTIS – The premium rate billing regulator, who are now renamed PhonepayPlus. All providers of PSMS must be registered with them as a service provider. They have the power to raise fines for breaches of their regulations, but only against the service provider and not the content provider – hence the service provider for the Richard and Judy Scandal, Eckoh received the fine, not Channel 4 themselves.
IP – Internet Protocol – any data that is sent or received using the internet.
J2ME – Java-based development language used for many mobile applications, especially games
MMS – Multi Media Message Service – with the advent of colour screens and phone cameras, it was developed by mobile networks as a replacement for SMS. MMS allows the user to send and receive pictures, audio and short video content (around 250k files). The cost of MMS combined with limited user need has seen a relatively small take up, with 100 million messages per month being sent in the UK (around 2% of the SMS volumes).
Mobile Data Charges – refers to mobile operator charges for accessing the internet and email. In effect, to download anything from the internet the user is charged for data. This can be as high as £7 per megabyte and is additional to a PSMS charged by the content provider. Many users are not aware of the data charges until they appear on their phone bill. Recent flat rate data charges – around £7.50 per month for 1 – 2 gig of downloads has alleviated this, but mobile users not on a flat rate plan are likely to be put off downloading content due to the high charges.
Mobile Operating Systems – There are a number of mobile operating systems used by handset manufacturers – Symbian, Windows Mobile, Ajax, Linux. There are other systems specific to certain phones such as the Blackberry and the iphone. The battle for the dominant mobile OS is likely to develop in the next 12 months and the main players will probably be Symbian, Windows Mobile and Google’s Android.
Mobile Operators – are the companies that own and operate the mobile infrastructure – in the UK they are Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Orange and 3. Operators such as Virgin Mobile lease capacity from the main operators.
Mobile Portal – an entry point into the mobile web. The mobile operators run their own portals, and is typically the first point of call for a mobile user logging on to the internet.
MSISDN – the number of a mobile phone. The MSISDN is carried in all SMS and MMS and offers an ideal way to identify a specific user. It cannot be identified when the mobile user is browsing the internet.
Ofcom – The telecoms and media regulator. Any premium rate issues will be dealt with by PhonepayPlus (ICSTIS), but Ofcom will deal with non-premium issues such as SMS spam. Their site has excellent guidance on acceptable usage.
PSMS – Premium SMS – is a message that is charged to the users phone. The charge is on receipt of a message, sometimes referred to as a reverse billing SMS. In order to comply with the regulations, the user must send a request message to a shortcode (a 5 or 6 digit number).
The price of the PSMS is determined by the shortcode number used for the message. These shortcodes are priced at 10p, 25p, 50p, 75p, £1, £1.50, £3 and £5. Billings can also be multiples of the price eg 2 x £1, where the user will receive 2 messages at £1.
Shortcode – a five or six number code for both receiving SMS from and sending Premium SMS to mobile users. Each shortcode is owned by a service provider who aggregates the number across all of the major networks. Shortcodes are country specific and cannot be sent/received outside the country of origin.
SMS – Short Message Service – an SMS is 160 characters of text and 12 characters of header (such as a reply number). Unlike email, for example, an SMS cannot carry additional header information or picture or video content. There are over 4 billion text messages sent each month in the UK – more messages than voice calls made.
SMSC – SMS Centre or gateway. An SMS centre provides a connection between the mobile networks and the internet. They will typically act as an aggregator by offering a single IP-based connection across all networks. They will also set up and get the agreements for shortcodes across the mobile operators.
Subscription/Recurring Billing – is a revenue option that allows the content provider to accept a single SMS request from a mobile user and continue to send messages monthly, weekly or even daily until an opt out or ‘STOP’ message is received. This was commonly used in the ringtone market boom as a method of maximising revenue. However stricter controls have been put in place, particularly with regard to subscription billing from under 16s.
URL Sending – a common method for delivering content by SMS. The text message will contain a URL link, which, when opened will download the content.
WAP – Wireless Application Protocol – the protocol has been widely available since 2000 and was designed to offer a simplified version of web browsing from mobile phones.
Wap Push – or Wap Push Message is a method of delivering mobile content by SMS. The Wap Push is essentially a text message with a URL to the content and configured as a Service Message. It will prompt the handset user to open the URL or download the content. Due to abuse by unscrupulous companies Wap Push can no longer be used in Premium SMS.
Wireless – it used to be the word my grandparents used for their radio! These days it general refers to wireless computer networks, or WiFi. Confusingly ‘wireless’ tends to be the term used in the states for mobile networks.
WML – Wireless Mark Up Language – similar to HTML, WML was designed to be specifically used on mobile. As mobile handsets have developed WML has become less important for delivering web-type content, with XML, compact HTML and HTML also running on many mobile browsers.
© Mark Brill, Ping Corporation Ltd 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
More Operators looking at 3rd party content
More and more mobile operators are looking to content providers to increase their revenues according to new research from technology intelligence firm ABI Research. They have revealed that WCDMA subscriptions have increased by 102 per cent over the past year and that operators are looking to capitalise on this by improving their mobile content services.
They also noted that most mobile traffic will be data-orientated within the next seven years.
'Operators are now looking to YouTube Mobile, Jamster and Warner Music for content to excite and entertain consumers,' commented Jake Saunders, Asia-Pacific research director for ABI Research.
He added that messaging platforms such as Blackberry devices, as well as enterprise applications, are also helping to increase data traffic.
Earlier this month, Vodafone announced its impending rollout of YouTube Mobile for subscribers, closely following a similar mobile deal with social networking site MySpace.
They also noted that most mobile traffic will be data-orientated within the next seven years.
'Operators are now looking to YouTube Mobile, Jamster and Warner Music for content to excite and entertain consumers,' commented Jake Saunders, Asia-Pacific research director for ABI Research.
He added that messaging platforms such as Blackberry devices, as well as enterprise applications, are also helping to increase data traffic.
Earlier this month, Vodafone announced its impending rollout of YouTube Mobile for subscribers, closely following a similar mobile deal with social networking site MySpace.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Why I Hate Vodafone
A bit like banks, all mobile networks are rubbish. However I reserve my greatest distain for Vodafone.
I've had two contracts with them: one for voice and one for my Blackberry email.
Firstly with the voice, the tarriffs are very poor. Other networks such as T-Mobile, Orange and even 3 have far more generous offers.
Having called them (it took 3 frustrating calls to find someone who could help) I gave them the chance to match an offer that I found on T-Mobile. Most of these offers involved charging more than the other operator for LESS minutes etc. In the end they admitted that they couldn't get near the T-Mobile offer.
Then there was the issue of data. I was paying £15 per month for data only on my Blackberry. except that it is only email data. If I click on a link in an email I'm charged for it. How can anyone separate data? It's just bits flying about the internet. Whether it ends up in my browser or my email is irrelevant in terms of charging.
Vodfafone did offer an SMS/data package. In this they treated them as the same bundle and you could use x amount of data or x number of SMSs. The allowance was stingy but at least there was one.
Except they have now separated the two. You have to buy internet data on it's own. And the cost is £2.35 per megabyte. Totally outrageous. Even worse, try finding this information on their website. It's only after some considerable grilling that I found this out.
T-Mobile charge a more reasonable £7.50 for 1 gig of data. That's more like a fair price.
The bottom line is that Vodafone are restricting downloads, particularly third party downloads with their ridiculous policy. We have systems that can easily deliver full track audio - it's around 3 meg for a standard song using AAC encoding. So over £6 to download if you are on a vodafone tariff. with T-Mobile it's a more reasonable 75p per meg (not fantastic, but not outrageous).
With the advent of the Iphone, we need networks to allow mobile users to download data at a reasonable rate. The cost is probably less than a few pence per meg. So how about 10p per meg for a download? They're still making money and more people will use it.
Better still more people will go onto the 3g network and they can make even more out of premium billing.
My next campaign will be for Fair Data for mobile users!
I've had two contracts with them: one for voice and one for my Blackberry email.
Firstly with the voice, the tarriffs are very poor. Other networks such as T-Mobile, Orange and even 3 have far more generous offers.
Having called them (it took 3 frustrating calls to find someone who could help) I gave them the chance to match an offer that I found on T-Mobile. Most of these offers involved charging more than the other operator for LESS minutes etc. In the end they admitted that they couldn't get near the T-Mobile offer.
Then there was the issue of data. I was paying £15 per month for data only on my Blackberry. except that it is only email data. If I click on a link in an email I'm charged for it. How can anyone separate data? It's just bits flying about the internet. Whether it ends up in my browser or my email is irrelevant in terms of charging.
Vodfafone did offer an SMS/data package. In this they treated them as the same bundle and you could use x amount of data or x number of SMSs. The allowance was stingy but at least there was one.
Except they have now separated the two. You have to buy internet data on it's own. And the cost is £2.35 per megabyte. Totally outrageous. Even worse, try finding this information on their website. It's only after some considerable grilling that I found this out.
T-Mobile charge a more reasonable £7.50 for 1 gig of data. That's more like a fair price.
The bottom line is that Vodafone are restricting downloads, particularly third party downloads with their ridiculous policy. We have systems that can easily deliver full track audio - it's around 3 meg for a standard song using AAC encoding. So over £6 to download if you are on a vodafone tariff. with T-Mobile it's a more reasonable 75p per meg (not fantastic, but not outrageous).
With the advent of the Iphone, we need networks to allow mobile users to download data at a reasonable rate. The cost is probably less than a few pence per meg. So how about 10p per meg for a download? They're still making money and more people will use it.
Better still more people will go onto the 3g network and they can make even more out of premium billing.
My next campaign will be for Fair Data for mobile users!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Mobile Data Charges
(dodgy dealings in the world of the mobile operator ... yet again)
When you connect to the internet from your computer, the charges are pretty simple. With broadband, for example, you pay a flat rate per month and there may or may not be limits on that data transfer. None the less the charges are pretty clear.
When it comes to mobile phones, the cost of transferring data is more confusing. Most people have an idea of what they pay for calls and texts, although the networks have added confusion to this by exempting certain types of calls or texts from bundles along with the excessive costs of roaming. However when it comes to data – emails and downloading files, the mobile networks have taken advantage of the lack of mobile users by adding in additional and often exorbitant charges for transferring data.
What is Mobile Data?
Mobile data is anything that is moved around using the internet connection on your phone. This includes emails, the internet or downloading ringtones, backgrounds or games. This facility on the phone can be very useful for delivering additional information for users, and if it weren’t for data charges it could be done very cheaply. For example providers or games and ringtones commonly use a method called Wap Push to send you the file. Wap push is simply a text message that, when opened, connects to the file which is stored on the internet.
What is the cost of Mobile Data?
The exact cost of data varies widely from network to network and from package to package. If you buy a data card then there will be a reasonable allowance for data (typically 30 meg) within the monthly tariff. Standard monthly phone tariffs will include a few megabytes of data free. Most pay as you go users will be charged for all the data they download.
These charges are start at £1 per megabyte up to £7 per megabyte. And if you use your phone to download data while roaming the cost can be u to £20 per megabyte.
Worse still, this information is not easy to come buy. Look on your mobile operator’s site and see if they will tell you? For pay as you go users they don’t even see the cost on their monthly bills.
Opportunities
The great thing about the newest generation of mobile phones is their ability to offer games, music and even video. Your phone could quite easily replace your mp3 player.
With powerful devices carried around all the time by almost everyone, there is a great opportunity both for people to create music, videos or games and quickly and easily distribute them.
The barrier, however is the amount that mobile users will pay their networks to download it. If a 3 minute song is 3 megabytes, for example, then a pay as you go user will pay £21 to download it.
What’s the solution?
In an ideal world, we’d be paying the same as an internet connection on our computers. In fact this could be a perfect way to sell 3g phones. The networks offer a fast data connection for unlimited downloads at the same price as your home broadband.
However back in the real world, that isn’t going to happen just yet.
One option is to deliver via MMS, multi media message service. This is also problematic for the cost of delivery (30p per message), compatibility and most significantly, the file size. This is limited by the phone and may be as small as 100kb.
Wap push has a number of advantages over MMS. For example, opening a link to a wap site can identify your phone’s operating system and deliver a compatible file. There is also no limit on the file type or size.
Fair Data
The solution that we are looking for is pre-buying data from the networks. What that means for the user is the cost of the data can be included in the price of the item. At the moment it is possible for content providers to pre-buy data at around 30p per megabyte. Still not cheap, but much less than the £1-7 that a user will be charged.
We will be including pre-paid data within our Mobile Publishing System, Immedia24. It makes the possibility of sending full track music or even videos a reality.
As pre-paid data becomes more common hopefully the price will begin to drop. We have called this Fair Data, as what you are getting is completely clear.
When you connect to the internet from your computer, the charges are pretty simple. With broadband, for example, you pay a flat rate per month and there may or may not be limits on that data transfer. None the less the charges are pretty clear.
When it comes to mobile phones, the cost of transferring data is more confusing. Most people have an idea of what they pay for calls and texts, although the networks have added confusion to this by exempting certain types of calls or texts from bundles along with the excessive costs of roaming. However when it comes to data – emails and downloading files, the mobile networks have taken advantage of the lack of mobile users by adding in additional and often exorbitant charges for transferring data.
What is Mobile Data?
Mobile data is anything that is moved around using the internet connection on your phone. This includes emails, the internet or downloading ringtones, backgrounds or games. This facility on the phone can be very useful for delivering additional information for users, and if it weren’t for data charges it could be done very cheaply. For example providers or games and ringtones commonly use a method called Wap Push to send you the file. Wap push is simply a text message that, when opened, connects to the file which is stored on the internet.
What is the cost of Mobile Data?
The exact cost of data varies widely from network to network and from package to package. If you buy a data card then there will be a reasonable allowance for data (typically 30 meg) within the monthly tariff. Standard monthly phone tariffs will include a few megabytes of data free. Most pay as you go users will be charged for all the data they download.
These charges are start at £1 per megabyte up to £7 per megabyte. And if you use your phone to download data while roaming the cost can be u to £20 per megabyte.
Worse still, this information is not easy to come buy. Look on your mobile operator’s site and see if they will tell you? For pay as you go users they don’t even see the cost on their monthly bills.
Opportunities
The great thing about the newest generation of mobile phones is their ability to offer games, music and even video. Your phone could quite easily replace your mp3 player.
With powerful devices carried around all the time by almost everyone, there is a great opportunity both for people to create music, videos or games and quickly and easily distribute them.
The barrier, however is the amount that mobile users will pay their networks to download it. If a 3 minute song is 3 megabytes, for example, then a pay as you go user will pay £21 to download it.
What’s the solution?
In an ideal world, we’d be paying the same as an internet connection on our computers. In fact this could be a perfect way to sell 3g phones. The networks offer a fast data connection for unlimited downloads at the same price as your home broadband.
However back in the real world, that isn’t going to happen just yet.
One option is to deliver via MMS, multi media message service. This is also problematic for the cost of delivery (30p per message), compatibility and most significantly, the file size. This is limited by the phone and may be as small as 100kb.
Wap push has a number of advantages over MMS. For example, opening a link to a wap site can identify your phone’s operating system and deliver a compatible file. There is also no limit on the file type or size.
Fair Data
The solution that we are looking for is pre-buying data from the networks. What that means for the user is the cost of the data can be included in the price of the item. At the moment it is possible for content providers to pre-buy data at around 30p per megabyte. Still not cheap, but much less than the £1-7 that a user will be charged.
We will be including pre-paid data within our Mobile Publishing System, Immedia24. It makes the possibility of sending full track music or even videos a reality.
As pre-paid data becomes more common hopefully the price will begin to drop. We have called this Fair Data, as what you are getting is completely clear.
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.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Mobile Data Charges
One of the major issues for mobile downloads, such as videos or music is that users are charged by their mobile operator for their data. I
Take a 3 minute song - it will be just under 3 meg in size.
The operators have blurred the issue, but if your on a basic contract, there will be a monthly allowance of a few megabytes after which they start charging.
If you're on pay as you go you'll be even worse off. Networks charge up to £3 per megabyte of download even though the cost to them is pennies. And because you don't get itemised bills you will never know how much a download has cost you.
Essentially this is a complete scam by the mobile phone operators but it presents a major problem for content providers.
Take our 3 megabyte song - lets say you buy it on a £1.50 premium SMS charge. You will then pay another £9 in data charges if you're an unfortunately pay as you go user.
Is there a solution? Well there are two:
1. Use MMS for delivery. The problem with this is two-fold. Firstly not all networks support MMS and all file formats in the same way - it doesn't always work. Secondly for it will cost the content provider up to 30p to deliver the MMS.
They could use a video shortcode (or MMS shortcode) - but currently the costs of this are very expensive and only likely to be used for the largest content providers.
2. Pre-pay for the data
The system works like this: you send a link to the file, or a wap link to the mobile user in the reply to the PSMS request.
That link is to a URL which does not incurr data charges to the networks - the data has been prepaid. The cost of this data is a few pence per megabyte and can be included in the cost of the download.
Right now, the second option is not widely available, however we have managed to incorporate this in our mobile content management system, immedia24.
My plan is to promote this 'fair data' policy so that mobile users understand that we're not ripping them off but that the mobile operators are doing that.
Take a 3 minute song - it will be just under 3 meg in size.
The operators have blurred the issue, but if your on a basic contract, there will be a monthly allowance of a few megabytes after which they start charging.
If you're on pay as you go you'll be even worse off. Networks charge up to £3 per megabyte of download even though the cost to them is pennies. And because you don't get itemised bills you will never know how much a download has cost you.
Essentially this is a complete scam by the mobile phone operators but it presents a major problem for content providers.
Take our 3 megabyte song - lets say you buy it on a £1.50 premium SMS charge. You will then pay another £9 in data charges if you're an unfortunately pay as you go user.
Is there a solution? Well there are two:
1. Use MMS for delivery. The problem with this is two-fold. Firstly not all networks support MMS and all file formats in the same way - it doesn't always work. Secondly for it will cost the content provider up to 30p to deliver the MMS.
They could use a video shortcode (or MMS shortcode) - but currently the costs of this are very expensive and only likely to be used for the largest content providers.
2. Pre-pay for the data
The system works like this: you send a link to the file, or a wap link to the mobile user in the reply to the PSMS request.
That link is to a URL which does not incurr data charges to the networks - the data has been prepaid. The cost of this data is a few pence per megabyte and can be included in the cost of the download.
Right now, the second option is not widely available, however we have managed to incorporate this in our mobile content management system, immedia24.
My plan is to promote this 'fair data' policy so that mobile users understand that we're not ripping them off but that the mobile operators are doing that.
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