A while back Ronan blogged about the stifling effect of data charges on the growth of the mobile Internet. Well since then, 3 launched their X-Series flat-rate data package, and people got excited. This was a great development and a possible catalyst for the widespread penetration of mobile Internet usage. Surely the other operators would have to follow suit with similar competitive data plans.
In this post I take a look at what is happening in Ireland right now. X-Series launched mid-2007 in Ireland- the question is what are the other operators doing? To paint the landscape, there are four main operators in Ireland right now: 3, Vodafone, O2, and Meteor. All offer a number of data packages.
Data bundles
The following outlines the main data packages available to Irish consumers right now (prices are monthly except where stated).
3
100MB for €5.99
250MB for €9.99
Unlimited for €19.99
3's X-Series package offers unlimited data from €14.99.
Vodafone
Two main offerings from Vodafone:
500MB for €9.99
50MB per day for 99c per day. You are only charged on the days that you use the mobile Internet (Max cost per month is €30.69).
O2
10MB for €9.99
25MB for €19.99
Meteor
250MB for €9.99
Unlimited for €30
(Until very recently Meteor had offered 15MB for €10, and 25MB for €15)
Which package is for you?
The good news is that there clearly are some affordable data plans available for Irish consumers, and costs are effectively low enough for mobile internet usage to really take off. As a sign of things improving, its worth noting that since Meteor recently changed its offerings there is now only one package available with a monthly limit less than 100MB. Surely this is an indication of a growing appetite for mobile data.
The 10-25MB offerings from O2 (and until recently, Meteor) are likely to suit many users, depending on the device, browser and connection they are using (for instance it could take 7 mins to download 1MB of data on a GPRS connection). In particular, these allowances would suit low end device users visiting mainly mobile-optimised content. It would probably be enough for checking emails, sports results, stock quotes, news etc. Particularly if the user sticks to mobile sites, then 25MB should be enough. On the other hand, a Nokia N95 on a 3.5G network (such as 3's) could use up this allowance very quickly (over HSDPA, assuming typical real world speed of 400kbps, 1MB data might be downloaded in 20sec). So, for any even slightly heavier use, it is unlikely that these quotas would suffice.
So what packages exist that might suit the more frequent user? There are currently only two unlimited flat-rate plans with no price consistency (3 for €14.99 and Meteor for €30). However there are a number of other data options with relatively high limits that would accommodate most users, especially where we are increasingly seeing phones that can make use of WIFI when available. Such plans include Vodafone's 500MB for €10, Meteor's unlimited €30 plan, and Vodafone's 99c per day package. O2 do not offer any unlimited plan.
Obstacles to growth
Although things are looking decidedly rosy in terms of price, there is one other significant obstacle. In Ireland, right now, Vodafone and 3 are the only two Irish operators to offer bundled mobile internet services to prepaid users. Meteor and O2 offer data bundles to pay-monthly customers only. This means that O2 and Meteor prepay customers can access the mobile Internet, but they will be charged per KB (Meteor at 3c/KB and O2 at 1c/KB). This effectively rules out frequent habitual use. This is difficult to understand. By not offering a data bundle to prepay users, operators are essentially denying use of mobile Internet to these users, and of course they are losing out on potential business. Meteor and O2 could do better here. Prepay options are hugely popular in Ireland, in the past accounting for a massive 76% of the market. With only two of the four Irish operators offering affordable mobile Internet to this segment, it seems an obvious way to grow mobile web usage (not to mention a good cash cow).
There is also still some confusion around the marketing of some of these packages. For instance, the description of one of the data bundles available includes the following line:
* Usage is charged at 0.5c up to 99c or 168KB of usage
0.5c? 99c? 168KB? What is this all about? This was supposed to be a data bundle with a fixed monthly fee and a fixed monthly data limit of several hundred MB. What hope do visitors to their website have of comprehending what is actually on offer when it is mired like this?
Overall, things do appear to be improving, with a number of affordable data bundles available. 3 still remains the most competitively priced for mobile data, but for the motivated user, there is definitely real choice out there. As a sign of things improving note that O2 is now the only operator offering a bundled data package with less than 100MB limit. And I'm sure this package will soon be dropped or updated too. However, a number of obstacles still are hindering usage growth: the lack of availability for prepay users, and confusing marketing of data bundles.
Related
On the subject of prepaid wireless internet, on the international stage there has been an increase in the roll out of prepaid mobile data packages. Martin Sauter on the WirelessMoves blog has been keeping track of prepaid mobile data packages by country, and has set up a wiki documenting the various prepaid offerings worldwide. This handy resource for travellers can be found at http://prepaid-wireless-internet-access.wetpaint.com/.
References
Prices and packages confirmed on the websites below on 31/01/2008.
http://vodafone.ie/planscosts/paymonthly/addons/
http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/Services/O2+Mobile+internet/Pricing
http://www.meteor.ie/personal/bill_pay/add_ons/data_add_ons/
http://three.ie/on3/mobile_broadband.htm
