[Pyramid]: Trends in Mobile Data Services Driving $600B Revenues by 2018

A new report by Ozgur Aytar [pictured], Research Director, Pyramid Research finds that " .. the transformation of the mobile operator business model is evident in data pricing schemes that are innovative and disruptive in an ever-competitive market landscape worldwide:

• Competitive pressures call for operators to take a dynamic approach to tariff plans, whereby they constantly revise pricing and introduce new schemes to gain market share and increase data usage among existing subscribers.
   
• Shared mobile data plans for multiple users or devices have spread outside of the US, enabling operators to draw in the growing installed base of tablets as well as other connected devices
   
• Pyramid Research expects an increasing number of operators worldwide to pursue flat-rate or time-based charging for specific applications (e.g. streaming content and social media) as well as sponsored, zero-rating schemes in 2015 to boost data usage and 4G adoption and leverage the popularity of over-the-top content for upsell opportunities

Pyramid Research expects mobile data revenue to grow annually by 11% between 2013 and 2018, reaching over $600bn as compared to an 0.2% decline in mobile voice revenue in the same period"

See "Pyramid Research explores successful and emerging mobile data pricing strategies" - here.

Norway Regulator Argues Against Zero-Rate Service

The Norwegian regulator, NPT, published its position on Zero Rate services, in view of the Norwegian Net Neutrality guidelines.

Frode Sørensen [pictured], Senior Advisor, analysis is as follows:

• "Norway has had guidelines on net neutrality since 2009 [here], and these seem to be working well as a regulatory tool to preserve net neutrality for the citizens .. the goal of net neutrality is not that all traffic should be handled identically – which would never be possible in practice. The aim is rather to preserve the Internet as an open platform for communication and avoid discrimination or fragmentation of the Internet.
   
• .. In recent years providers in some countries have launched service offers where specific types of traffic are exempt from the data cap
   
• The Norwegian guidelines on net neutrality state quite clearly that "Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection that is free of discrimination with regard to type of application, service or content or based on sender or receiver address." This means that in the Norwegian market zero-rating would constitute a violation of the guidelines
   
• There are of course arguments in favour of zero-rating that make the method seem quite fair. As consumers, we may find it advantageous that we do not have to pay (extra) for a particular type of traffic. Nevertheless, zero-rating lead to selected traffic from the Internet service provider itself or affiliated providers being favoured above other traffic. And this is exactly the kind of situation net neutrality aims to avoid – allowing the Internet service provider to decide how we use the Internet. Instead, the Internet should remain an open, neutral platform for all types of communication.
   
• Internet service providers should use methods other than discrimination of content and/or applications to differentiate their products. One possibility is differentiation on the basis of speed, in line with the Norwegian guidelines on net neutrality

See "Net neutrality and charging models" - here.

Success for Application-Based Service Plans in Zimbabwe

According to Dan Deeth, Sandvine, post to the vendor's blog, Econet Wireless' offering of WhatsApp and Facebook bundles [see "Econet Wireless [Zimbabwe] Uses Sandvine for Application-based Charging" - here] is "continuing to out-maneuver and out-innovate competitors. These unlimited bundles allow subscribers to purchase unlimited usage of their favorite service for a day, week, or monthly for a low fee ..In the short time they have been available, adoption of these bundles has been incredible for Econet. .. WhatsApp accounted for over 23% of total network traffic in March 2014. Since that time, adoption of these plans, as well as WhatsApp traffic has continued to accelerate thanks to positive word of mouth as well as the launch of new budget-friendly smartphones .. competing [Telecel Zimbabwe] networks have begun to offer similar plans in Zimbabwe".

See "More of WhatsAppening in Zimbabwe" - here.

[Dean Bubley]: By end 2019, >1.5B will Use Zero rated Mobile Data

Very interesting analysis of mobile data business models, by Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis:

[Chile]: No Compromise on Net Neutrality

While the Net Neutrality on the US goes towards "Fast Lanes", Chile, the first countries to adopt a Net Neutrality law (see "Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality" - here) does not compromise on any aspect of Neutrality.

Leo Mirani reports to QUARTZ that "A surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. This week, Santiago put an end to the practice, widespread in developing countries, of big companies “zero-rating” access to their services. As Quartz has reported, companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia strike up deals with mobile operators around the world to offer a bare-bones version of their service without charging customers for the data"

Some examples of Zero rate programs:

• Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs - here
• Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access - here
• VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia - here 

Back to Chile's choice - ".. But Chile’s Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones has decided (Spanish) that such promotions violate net neutrality laws and must end in two days, on June 1.According to the law (Spanish), internet service providers must “not arbitrarily distinguish content, applications or services, based on the source or ownership thereof”.

See "When net neutrality backfires: Chile just killed free access to Wikipedia and Facebook" - here.

Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service

   

Rajesh Kurup reports to The Hindu BusinessLine that "Telecom service provider Aircel has launched a service - Facebook for All – that provides free access to the social media platform for its customers. Under the service, Aircel enables its customers to network and be socially active on Facebook in nine different languages. Customers can have free access to Facebook Application, Facebook Messenger and Mobile version on their existing or new connections".

Compare to "Uninor [India] Shifts "from data to Internet"; Charges for Facebook and Whatsapp Use" - here, "Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access" - here and "Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs" - here.

Back to Aircel - "Under the offer, Aircel will provide free 50 MB per month data on Facebook for a period of 60 days after activation. Existing customers will get free 50 MB data for 30 days and post 50 MB usage, the subscribers will have the option of using Facebook on their phones at ₹0.02 per 10 KB .. The customers also have the option of benefiting from the special tariff packs for Facebook which will be as low as ₹0.50 per day".

See "Aircel offers free Facebook access to its customers" - here.

Alcatel-Lucent: "third party pays favors content providers with deep pockets"; Needs Strong PCC and DPI

 
A blog post by Rich Crowe [pictured], Marketing Director, Alcatel-Lucent IP Platforms, to the vendor's blog, analyses the 1-800 (Zero rate to the subscriber, 3rd party pays) model in mobile data (see ESPN, Facebook).

"A third party pays plan is fair in that any content provider can subsidize the data its content consumes. This assumes that the net is neutral, meaning that data is treated with equal priority once it is on the mobile internet. In reality, third party pays favors content providers with deep pockets. Less well-funded content providers, smaller operations and start-ups that can’t afford to pay for data could lose traffic and face reduced advertiser support .. Content providers that subsidize large quantities of data will almost certainly seek service-level agreements (SLAs) that ensure a minimum level of quality for their traffic. These SLAs could de-prioritize traffic from other content providers, possibly to the point where providers’ services and brands are negatively affected. Subscribers consuming content that is not subject to an SLA could experience a corresponding service degradation"

"A strong policy control function will be essential for determining which subscriber data is zero-rated and billable to the third party content provider. Proper traffic identification is critical to policy control performance. It calls for deep packet inspection or knowledge that the access network identifier is unique to the third party traffic that is subject to the agreement".

See "Third party pays – Six degrees of mobile data plan innovation" - here. Related post - "[Guest Post]: 1-800 Apps Concept: Superficially Appealing but Unworkable" - here, 

Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access

  

More on the Zero-Rate front (Viber-Globe, Mobilink, Axis; Google-Airtel, VimpelCom-WikiPedia): Twitter is joining the party  

Vodafone India announced a ".. unique partnership with Twitter .. to drive faster, smarter and better mobile internet usage among its millions of customers. Under this arrangement, Vodafone India customers will experience the ‘Twitter for Android’ app and mobile.twitter.com free of any mobile charges for three months .. Vodafone India is first operator in India and largest in the world to bring the Twitter for Android app to market in this way".

Vodafone warns in its twitter account that ".. Standard charges will apply for External links, pics, videos" and says in the release that "Vodafone and Twitter will ensure seamless and transparent browsing experience by clearly prompting and informing the customer on the applicable charges, especially when they are accessing links via their Twitter timeline and elsewhere on Twitter's network"

See "Vodafone India Partners Twitter" - here.

DT to Offer Zero-Rate Video Calls, Messaging, File sharing and Music Services

Does Deutsche Telekom execute its "two-sided business model" - in which an OTT service provider pays for QoS (here and here)? Will Net Neutrality still be relevant when the EU will complete all its studies and consultations?

The German carrier does not wait and announced recently (during IFA 2012, Berlin) two new services for its local subscribers:

• joyn - "Service available to Telekom customers from December, Chat and send files free of charge on all smartphone tariffs, Integrated in many smartphones in the future and available immediately as a free app for iOS and Android .. The Chat and Send File functions are free of charge for Deutsche Telekom customers who already have a calling plan that includes a data or text message flat rate. In contrast to other messenger services, the volume of data used is not deducted from the volume included in the flat rate".
   
• Spotify - "As of October 2012, customers will be able to listen to more than 18 million music titles via their mobile phone, tablet and PC - both online offline. What's more, the online usage of the Spotify streaming service will not have any impact on the data volume specified in the respective Deutsche Telekom tariff". 

Niek Jan van Damme (DT), Gerrit Meier (Spotify) and
Dr. Ingo Hofacker (DT) during the joint press conference at IFA  

See "Deutsche Telekom launches joyn communication service" - here and "Here's the music: Deutsche Telekom offers unlimited music streaming with Spotify" - here.