A new poll of mobile operator executives in some 55 countries indicates the majority of these executives believe mobile data pricing will move toward tiered and metered plans in a matter of months and years. The survey was released by international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
"With pricing positioned firmly at the heart of the solution to the mobile industry's challenges, questions remain over whether consumers will be easily weaned off flat-rate data tariffs and how long mobile operators can stave off the need for investment in new technologies and infrastructure to maintain quality levels for a new breed of data-hungry consumer," said Natasha Good, co-head of Freshfields' mobile group.
AT&T (NYSE:T) is the first and so far the only operator to institute tiered pricing in the U.S., while a number of European operators have moved in that direction. However, the majority of the executives surveyed said the believe new pricing arrangement will solve or diminish traffic strains on networks as data traffic continues to increase.
The survey also found that almost 20 percent of the polled executives indicated that a swift development of next-generation networks is high on their agendas.
For more:
- see this InformationWeek article
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