

Flat Rate Considered Harmful: How to ignite innovation on the mobile web - raganwald
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/09/23/Flat-Rate-Considered-Harmful

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jamescoops
If the mobile operators could charge 50% of mobile users $15 a month extra for
a flat rate data plan it would dwarf any revenues they could get from trying
to run services themselves (ringtones, video etc is peanuts for most
operators). Plus, they can get incremental revenues through providing enablers
like billing, CRM data, location feeds to third party service providers.

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alaskamiller
I can see his point, there's no incentive for mobile operators to improve when
they offer all you can eat service for a singular price.

That said, I think it's wrong. Prior to the broadband revolution, people on
dial-up were extremely stingy with their attention span and time. Back in the
day I had to save up and count down the number of minutes SimCityDemo.zip
would download off AOL so that I can time it correctly.

But the surge in popularity for this fueled the subsequent revolution. More
people saw value in being online and to compete, the service providers gave
away more hours. Then more free days. Then more free months. Then faster
speed. And now ubiquity.

And the consumer interest has only surged. Now people are free to experiment,
free to tinker, because of the abundance and availability of access. I may not
use any of the stuff shown at TechCrunch40 but I'll at least give it a shot.
What do I have to lose? I pay $14.99 for unlimited DSL and $19.99 for
unlimited EVDO.

Similarly, what's going to cause the mobile revolution to explode in America
is more than skin deep. It's not just the pricing, it all has to do with
technology and government regulations. Japan's mobile revolution happened
years ago, not because their operators competed on tiered services and billing
practices, but because they competed on technology and was relatively free of
government regulations.

