At MWC this week the boss of Vodafone was moaning away about not getting revenue from Google searches. Recently, the boss of O2 was moaning about the same thing.
What are these guys on? Do they want the whole wireless Internet to go onto Pay-As-You-Go?
These bosses initiated unlimited data deals to get 3G smartphone users on-board.
The operators asked Google and others to build applications to get people to use data services.
But the operators now realise that they're not getting any extra money from the increased data usage.
The operators, as toll gate-keepers to the wireless internet, had the keys to the kingdom. They had the opportunity to make Midas look deprived.
But they screwed up their business model.
The operators are now moaning that subscribers are so keen on data usage that they are clogging the networks.
So build better networks - LTE and Wimax are sitting around waiting to be deployed.
But that's not the way of the network operators. They only build out their networks when the service is so terrible they have no choice.
So what do they do? They now want to restrict data usage.
Recently, in the
Now Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, is suggesting a sliding scale of charges to the network: if you want a decent service you pay more; if you want a poor service you pay less.
That's undemocratic compared to today's arrangement where everyone gets a poor service.
My theory that you have to have a brain bypass to become a top manager at a wireless operator must be true.
This is as crazy as a fixed line operator stopping you adding extension cabling in your own house!... Hold on... That is the way it used to be in the bad old days of UK monopoly isn't it? :-) Time for the wireless operators to get creative with business models (and the new technologies) for sure, otherwise they will be as fondly remembered as the Post Office's telecom business practices. Come on Vodafone, free "Sure Signal" femtocells would make you very popular.
Nice point, Jon, thanks
following their pricing logic / sliding scale ( I am getting good at this financing stuff!)how much do you think we could charge for a network that does not work at all!
That sum would be directly proportional, garry, to the amount we spent on marketing bollox.
Now I understand why, when I complained to Vodafone that the network coverage at work was almost inexistent, they done nothing to check it and instead asked me to turn my phone off for 60s and try again. They do not want me to use the phone, they just want me to keep on paying the contract. Clever...