All-you-can-eat pricing plans aren’t going to disappear that quickly
BLOGGER: JEFF BARAK
While all the speakers on the first day of the Amdocs InTouch Business Forum in Miami agreed that the mobile data explosion – driven by smartphone adoption, multiple devices and machine-to-machine technology – was one of the major challenges facing service providers in today’s connected world, many observers were surprised by the fact that not all service providers felt that this meant the end of all-you-can-eat pricing plans.
As Peter Campbell, senior vice president of Sprint IT, told the audience of over 300 Amdocs customers, partners and industry analysts and media at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, all-you-can-eat data plans have one cardinal virtual: they’re simple for customers to understand.
And because Sprint’s philosophy is to keep it simple, Campbell said, Sprint will continue to support unlimited data plans, noting that they help ensure a high level of customer satisfaction because there are no overage surprises for the customer when they get their monthly bill.
Craig Thomas, vice president at MetroPCS, the first carrier in the United States to roll out a 4G, Long-Term Evolution network, also insisted that MetroPCS had no intention of moving away from its unlimited data packages ($40 a month, for unlimited voice, text, mobile Internet; $50 for a metered bucket of video minutes or $60 a month for unlimited video), again because these packages are easy for the customer to understand and use.
But both Thomas and Campbell agreed that service providers have to find ways to monetize their networks, given the increasing amount of investment being made in the network in order to keep up with the exponential growth in mobile data. This includes working with device manufacturers to drive WiFi offload to reduce core traffic, and working with application developers to make mobile apps more efficient and less “bandwidth-demanding”.
As Campbell put it, Sprint are investing in their network, replacing its multiple platforms with a single platform, so that the lower cost of the network will allow Sprint to continue to support all-you-can-eat plans. “An incremental $4 to $5 billion spend on the network over the next three to five years will yield $10 to $11 billion in savings over a seven-year period,” Campbell noted.
[...] and can offer their customers even better deals, as they have no associated printing costs. Three-Mobile.co.uk "Our network is built for data and future-proofed for 4G technologies. We have …work is built for data and future-proofed for 4G technologies. We have invested millions of pounds [...]