[Analysys Mason]: Once Again, Shared Data Plans are Good for MNOs!

A recent survey by Ronan De Renesse, Principal Analyst, Eva Weidinger, Research Analyst and Martin Scott, Principal Analyst Analysys Mason (among 6610 individuals from  France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK and the USA) finds that ".. multi-device tariffs offer mobile operators a golden opportunity to more effectively monetise mobile data... Owners of more than one mobile device and those who use their smartphone for 'tethering' use more data than smartphone-only owners, but do not go for higher data allowances, indicating the difficulties of mobile data monetisation".

• 47% of shared or family data plan users have between 1GB and 10GB of data per month, compared to 36% of respondents on other smartphone contracts.

• Similarly, users on high-level tariff tiers, who have more than 10GB of data per month, are more likely to be on a shared data or family plan. 16% of shared or family data plan users reported a monthly allowance of more than 10GB.
   
• In the USA, shared and family data plans are well established. AT&T [see "AT&T: 13M Subscribers on Shared Data Plans; Demand for Bigger Buckets"- here and chart below] and Verizon Wireless have offered shared data plans for residential subscribers since the third quarter of 2012. Both operators increased ARPU in 2012 through the launch of shared data plans, despite the emergence of competing flat-rate ‘unlimited’ plans from Sprint and T-Mobile.

See "The connected consumer survey 2013: smartphones, mobile data access and monetisation" - here.