Comments on: Carriers desperately seeking higher mobile data prices

By: Cristina Ceballos

Cristina Ceballos — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:24:00 +0000

Carriers desperately seeking higher mobile data prices http://t.co/gReYoYMv

By: tsachson

tsachson — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:34:05 +0000

I very like your description of data “happy hours”. We have been advocating this type approach for a while with carriers and I think they are about to move in this direction. The problem for them is that their networks just don’t have the ability to do any sort of dynamic billing (linked to peak/off peak) or allow a content provider to subsidize the bandwidth slivers (e.g. the Dept of Education would love to subsidize bandwidth for some sites, but not others for kids). Our solution at Box Top has been to have this type of customized bandwidth delivery handled by the apps themselves (virtualizing the BSS/OSS at the edge of the network). So far the carriers like it, but they are taking things slow. If you want more info, please feel free to drop us a line at info@boxtop.tv. Thanks, Thomas

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:14:19 +0000

The problem is that the networks want to make tons of money on data without spending on improving the network. The same problem afflicts ISPs, who like to charge ridiculous prices for bandwidth that is common in overseas markets. The corporate greed is insatiable since the CEOs have to justify their ridiculous salaries

By: Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya

Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:32:07 +0000

The entire article sounds like the discussion we had (and are still having!) with banks about debit-card fees. Just because you (the company) have made a rentiers fortune in the past charging for stuff that doesn’t cost you anything does not imply any sort of implied right to continue extracting said rents. Ethereal Mind has it right – either get used to less ‘free money’, or build out additional bandwidth. Hey, it seems to work out just fine in the rest of the world…

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:12:06 +0000

Carriers are trying to encourage Goldilocks behavior from consumers, don’t consume too much but don’t consume too little. I imagine we’ll see them continue offering a wide variety of plans before they figure this out, but make the low-end plans harder and harder to find :)

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:09:46 +0000

I am with you, Dean.

By: JoeS

JoeS — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:37:48 +0000

It seems like data plan prices vary tremendously from continent to continent, but some of that may be due to differences in population density (more towers needed to cover same number of people). Are there studies that show e.g. ‘profit per installed tower’ or ‘profit per square mile serviced’?

By: Mark Vonk

Mark Vonk — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Good comment EtherealMind, I fully agree. Furthermore, carriers should refrain from spying on me anyway (to check what data I access) and support net neutrality.

By: EtherealMind

EtherealMind — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:39:21 +0000

The carriers should focus on scaling their core business – bandwidth. Instead of attempting to “value add” or provide “enhanced services” they should simply focus on scaling their core competency to reduce costs and improve manageability.

That’s why they aren’t coping, they are moving away from the main focus of the new generation of carriers – bandwidth. Everything else is old and valueless.

By: Backbone

Backbone — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:48:21 +0000

Here is the solution.
FreeBand — the Internet’s first “1-800″ application platform to connect the unconnected.

Box Top’s mission is to bring free broadband – FreeBand – to households globally.

http://gigaom.com/mobile/its-coming-the-emergence-of-second-class-mobile-citizens/?utm_source=GigaOM+Daily+Newsletters&utm_campaign=e9daa91a0f-c%3Amob%2Ctec%2Cvid+d%3A08-12&utm_medium=email