Posted: 15th Jan, 2008 By: MarkJ
Consultancy firm BroadGroup Tariff Services has raised concern about the growing complexity of '
Mobile Broadband' (3G) pricing structures. BroadGroup fears that the use of confusing fair usage policies, excess charges and so forth may be driving customers away:
But the survey found that inclusive per-megabyte pricing is the most commonly used tariff structure, and that over 95 per cent of operators offer a 1GB and higher inclusive product. Some 16 per cent of operators still offer a time-based product such as minutes, hours or days in addition to per-megabyte inclusive products.
But the tariff tables reveal a multiplicity of taxes, excess charging tiers, roaming definitions, and pricing and billing increments. "If it is accepted that customer perception of data is changing, and pricing needs to be accessible, the complexity associated with mobile broadband pricing must also change," said Margrit Sessions, a spokeswoman for BroadGroup Tariff Services.
The
VNUNet item also notes that the average European tariff for 100MB of inclusive data is typically about £12 (16.03).