Vodafone UK has launched Vodafone live!, its own mobile Internet service which will provide users a portal with access to popular Internet services such as Google, MySpace, YouTube, eBay, and instant messaging and email applications.
As part of the package, Vodafone UK has also introduced new data tariffs, including a data pack giving up to 120Mb of usage for 7.50 pounds ($) a month. Other customers will be charged per kilobyte, up to a maximum of 1 pound ($) per day for 500Kb, with no further charge unless that day's usage exceeds 15Mb.
Research firm Ovum said Vodafone's decision to launch the service is 'sound' because it focuses on maximizing Vodafone's benefit from advertising.
'Vodafone has simultaneously positioned itself to give its customers a better experience of using Internet services on their phones, and to continue participating in revenues from advertising when its customers leave the Vodafone portal for its partners' sites,' John Delaney, Ovum analyst, said.
The research firm also said on the Internet, advertising is the principal or sole source of revenue for application providers.As the distinction between 'the mobile Internet' and 'the Internet' fades, it is the advertising-funded model of services that will increasingly prevail when people use Internet services on their mobile phones, Ovum said.