I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
So if you look at Telecom’s offering, it appears to be $8 per MB. This is for an EVDO connection I guess. But if you access through the WAP gateway (i.e. through a consumer phone handset) the price is 5c per k. $50 per MB!
http://xtra.co.nz/mobile/0,
It’s free to browse around the Xtra WAP menu on your mobile phone. You only start paying when you leave those menus and begin to use the services or enter an application such as a WAP game.
- All content marked with an “*” will cost 35c (incl GST) to read that page or perform that particular task. For example when you read a specific news article or choose to send an Xtra Email from your Telecom mobile.
- All content outside the Xtra WAP menu will cost 5c per kb.
- All WAP games are 7c per page (excluding downloadable Java games).
- All WAP Chat services are 7c per page or refresh (pages auto refresh every 15 seconds).
- Finally, some services, like downloading ringtones or sending Picture Messages have differing costs. In these instances you will get a message on your mobile telling you how much they cost so you can choose to proceed before downloading or sending them.
So that first time users hit on their new mobile phone to stuff.co.nz just cost $38.20. Hit two pages and you just paid for your monthly Sky Subscription.
Nuts! Why would you do that to your customers?
blog
Rod, so compare the NZ prices on Telecom with the following on Vodafone UK’s website. Bear in mind these are not mobile data prices but cellphone data prices.
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template12&pageID=MI_0036&WT.svl=11
And to someone in the UK 50 pence is what 50 cents is to us near or less.
Both the demo and the pages which explain the pricing are very good.
Why would they do that… Cause they can!!
The very same reason we have crap Internet in NZ.
They get away with their pricing model because consumers have been brainwashed over the years into believing that bandwidth is a precious commodity. By under investing in infrastructure this has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Thus we have enormously expensive mobile data rates. Whilst those rates remain high uptake of mobile services will remain low.
Those Vodafone UK costs seem like fantasy when viewed from NZ.
NZ is a poor economy. Many working in the economy are struggling with buying a house. They would love to catch up on news on the way home on the bus but the penal data rates are the insanity that prevents them. Whilst the rates remain obscene, there is no way for any kind of novel business to take advantage of the service. Imagine accessing Google Maps to find a local restaurant in a city like Wellington or Auckland. Whilst data rates remain high, there is no way for anyone to take advantage of such a services, nor the incentive for restaurateurs to ensure they have a map entry.
I continue to avoid internet access via my phone because I cannot control access to the service. For me the service needs to be inexpensive that I use it all the time without a care for its cost. That means around 5 cents a megabyte. The service needs to be available at the level whereby 150MB a month costs around 10 bucks.
I can’t see it happening any time soon. Not whilst we have the “precious” resource mentality.
And the crowd starts chanting…”Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi”
Vodafone UK is not quite so cheap as advertised n their front page (£1 per day):
“What if I go over my 15MB limit?”
“This is unlikely, but If you do, you’ll be charged £2 for every additional MB you use.”
but still a lot cheaper than NZ…..
Yeah, not to rub it in - but my £20/month plan with 3 Mobile (UK) has an unlimited data for £5/month option.
I just figured the prices were coming down everywhere?
When I was in Redmond late last year at a Microsoft Windows Mobile developer advisory council meeting it was quite revealing when we discussed concerns and issues we (as ISVs) had when developing PDA applications for the Microsoft platform.
In my experience efficiency of cellular data communications and dealing with limited network connectivity are critical to many organisations adopting mobile applications. However this wasn’t a point shared by most council members (mostly from the North American and UK region of the world).
To them cellular connectivity was more of an expected given, and most were left wondering how they could put unused monthly allowances etc to good use (no use letting them go to waste…). This is quite a marked comparision to my experience in Australia and New Zealand were most organisations are concerned with reducing their data usage to a level which makes it an acceptable monthly expense, even at the expense of reducing the functionality provided within their mobile applications.
I see quite a parallel between cellular connectivity options and issues to those being discussed with broadband connections for desktop PCs. Are New Zealand companies producing more inovative and industry leading software which only makes business sense to deploy outside of New Zealand?
I covered the actual pricing aspect of Telecom WAP about a year ago here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/tonyhughes/902
While I think the mobile data charges here in godzone are tantamount to extortion there are two legitimate factors that drive the price up. Setting aside absolute commitment to a return on invested shareholder capital there two factors are:-
(a) NZ has a difficult topography (undulating hills, valleys, forests) which demands a higher number of cell sites per square kilometer than in other countries. Cell sites are expensive in a capital sense, and frighteningly expensive when one considers the cost of the resource consent process needed to secure a site. We have the Government to thanks for the latter costs!
(b) NZ has fewer potential mobile users per square kilometer which robs carriers of the economies of scale available in other higher-density countries
All that said, it’s still far too expensive.
AK, I understand the factors you mentioned above of New Zealand’s unusual cell site expenses and economics of scale. However my frustration stems from the fact that in the current carrier model of exorbitant data rates everybody looses.
Surely if data rates were at a feasible level:
- increasing amounts of companies and organisations would add mobile internet marketing to their agenda, create new revenue streams via mobile advertising and promote and educate consumers to the usage and benefits of mobile internet
- mobile service providers continue to seek out new ways to use mobile technologies for business and entertainment and in turn generate revenue through developing mobile internet strategies, sites and delivering ads
- consumers would actually be able to view, shop and generally engage with their preferred brands/publications via their mobile device
- carriers would generate new revenues from both reasonably priced data (without consumer bill shock at the end of the month) and longer term unlimited data plans attached to existing plans.
What a nice idea….
Here in the US I am on an unlimited data plan ($20) & have a 3G phone. I never used mobile data for anything more than syncing my email in NZ. Now i use it for all the time: “push” email, video, movie ticket purchases, news, maps, driving directions etc… Two sites i use all the time http://mobile.engadget.com & http://mobile.live.com
Whats more my wife also has unlimited data! She never would have used this in NZ. Now she also uses a bunch of mobile data.
So the mobile company over here is now getting $20 x 2 more than they would have got from us in NZ … for very little marginal cost.
With so few people and such a huge barrier to entry for other operators it will be a long time until mobile operators are forced to compete. 2 is not enough … they will both be reasonably happy with their respective shares.
There is something bigger and more dangerous going on here.
As we know, Both carriers in NZ charge a huge amount for data off their network. What we are overlooking is they DO NOT charge for data on their network ie you access the Telecom and Vodafone portals at no cost (in data terms).
This is a conscious strategy to try and lock handset users in to the service provider and limit the content you have access to.
It is also a strategy to lock out third parties wanting to innovate in the mobile space or god forbid compete. Both carriers are attempting to make it as difficult and unattractive for their customers to participate in anything out side of the carrier served up content.
They are doing this not only through the data costs when their users want to go to the unsafe world of freedom of choice, but also through technology suppression - ie delivery methods and technologies on deck are significantly different than those available for outside development organisations.
To be fair to Vodafone - they do make data free up to 512K for our application’s. However that is very limiting in terms of what you can do with it (ie no video, low quality audio, not all games and java apps etc).
Telecom makes some free data available but only when you serve it form their portal. Of course this portal has limited functionality for third parties.
Its also ironic that the data transactions that we generate (and the carrier makes data revenue from) are usually on the back of a premium rate SMS that the carrier also takes around 50% of the post tax revenue from.
In this context, it starts to raise the question of peering, interconnect and restriction of mobile access speeds - looks like a very familiar battle is looming that will take years to resolve whilst we are all looking at unbundling.
I did raise this with the MED some time ago in a paper I was asked to write (http://www.gateway.co.nz/?p=35), but I am not aware of any activity to start addressing the issue.
…interesting to note that TNZ have now just reduced their off deck data rate from 5c per kb to 1c per kb - the same as VNZ.
http://www.xtra.co.nz/mobile/0,,10311,00.html
We just went on a month trip to Thailand and I took an I-mate jasjam PDA with me with windows mobile on it to use for internet access.
I was very suprised by the cheap pricing structure for gprs/3g data access you could sign up for from 12call/AIS or DTAC mobile phone companies in Thailand.
You pick your plan for mobile data access and its gets taken off your remaining prepay balance. They charge by the time spent accessing the network not the data used..
I started off with
20hrs a month for 100baht = $4.00NZD
Which I used up in the first week and switched to a higher plan.
100hrs a month for 350baht = $14.50NZD
which was plenty as I still had over 2000minutes left after 3 weeks.
If needed I could have gone up to and unlimited minutes access plan for 1000baht per month = $41.00NZD
I used the internet, sent emails, took pictures and emailed them to everyone while driving down the road, on the boat in fact everywhere in Thailand..
It was slow at times as it was mostly using gprs out of bangkok but acceptable to use. I used the PDA the whole time without visting an internet cafe once !
I’m too scared to use it here connected up to vodafone now I’m back due to the data pricing structure not the access time pricing structure used here..
I’d happily pay vodafone or telecom as I’m sure most would if they changed to time accessed not data !!
Why cant Telecom or Vodafone do the same thing here with charges.
I keep reading about how they both say it would slow the network down, data is very expensive to send over mobiles etc.. but it is easily done cheaply in asian countries ?? and in a country with 245 million population as thailand has compared to our 4 million population. Everyone over there has a mobile and uses it more than landlines..
Even the mobile phone charges are a fraction of the cost here.
Mobile calls around thailand cost 3 baht per minute = 12.5centsNZ a minute
International calls to anywhere are 20 baht a minute = 83 centsNZ per minute
If that can be done over there, why not here in NZ. It must be profitable for the mobile companies over there to have this pricing structure..
We are certainly way behind in mobile technology and pricing structures compared to other countries in the world.
Steve..
Hang on, not sure you guys have actually looked at mobile data pricing in New Zealand lately.
Sorry about the URL but here:
http://www.vodafone.co.nz/personal/plans-services/plans/3G-broadband-and-data/3g-broadband-plans.jsp
So for $69.95 you get 3GB of data a month. And for another $10 you get another 3GB. That’s $79.95 for 6GB/month at speeds that are comparable with many home DSL lines (certainly with my own line) at a price that’s not too far removed from the DSL pricing as well as being mobile.
Roaming overseas is an entirely different matter but for traffic here in NZ, that’s a pretty good price.
Cheers
Paul Brislen
Vodafone External Communications Manager
Dear Paul
I believe you are the Vodafone Comunications Manager.
I am using 3G vodafone service.I am happy with the speed but the vodafone service branch team at Victoria street Hamilton are hopeless,helpless.
They not suppose to be there!
Cheers!
Marie
Vodafone 3G user
Hi Marie,
I’ll pass that on to the sales team. Thanks for taking the time to write.
Cheers
Paul