A cross-country comparison of mobile data pricing by ABI Research has revealed that the United Kingdom (UK), France and Indonesia have some the lowest prices for Mobile Broadband packages in the world. It also found that mobile operators in developed markets like ours were still struggling to cope with the growing data demands being placed upon their networks.


In Indonesia, a 4GB (GigaByte) data package for the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) costs as low as £11 ($17) monthly. Indonesia and other such developing countries are driving mobile Internet usage through the use of low-cost prepaid Mobile Broadband and Internet plans, driven by the popularity of BlackBerry and other such smart phones.

By comparison it's possible to get a 5GB allowance from a UK operator like Three (3) for just £15 per month on a 1 month contract. Similarly O2 offers 3GB with a FREE modem on an 18 month contract for the same price, including unlimited Wi-Fi Hotspot access from BT Openzone. Rival operators tend to hover around the same pricing. O2 and Three (3) have also recently moved to abandoned the old "unlimited" data pricing models for Smartphone's.

Other countries including Italy and the Philippines have experimented with pricing according to time rather than data consumption, allowing users a fixed number of hours of connectivity every month. Since data usage will continue to grow, operators will need to introduce innovative data pricing and manage their bandwidth in order to deliver an enjoyable user experience.

The forthcoming Long Term Evolution ( LTE ) technology, which aims to replace the existing HSPA based Mobile Broadband services in the UK from 2011/12, will help to manage capacity and produce a faster and more stable service. However it is not a 'fix everything' pill and mobile operators will need to keep upgrading their capacity or risk the growth in data usage having a more negative effect.