O2 [UK] Plans to Charge OTT Providers will Wait for LTE

   

O2's UK CEO Ronan Dunne (picture) told David Meyer from ZDNet that "O2 is investigating various business models that involve working with content providers .. none of models will adversely affect the end user .. What we will do is use the example of LTE to provide an equivalent of the M6 toll road, [so content providers can] choose that particular channel to put the most media-rich content through. It's using the network efficiently with a view to optimising the experience for the end user".

See "O2: 4G mobile broadband will allow data 'toll roads'" - here. This is not the first time we see this - see also "O2[UK] Wants to Charge Content Providers" - here - but this time it is planned for the [un-announced yet] LTE era.

This strategy is based on the perception that once LTE is in place, it will provide "extra benefits", much more than we have (and need) is today's 3G. So, all regular traffic will be provided with today's QoE (which is probably considered as “good enough” by the carriers), and those that will pay extra (OTT content providers in this case) will get to use the new capabilities of the future LTE technology, for new services.

Such business model does not consider the dynamics of content consumption towards streaming video, on-line gaming etc. Experience shows us that the new capacity is quickly consumed, and demand for bandwidth exceeds supply.