Brian Greene on mobile data costs, showing how crazily expensive it is to get online in Ireland from anything bar a landline.
My thoughts:
With the average size of e-mails and files increasing rapidly over time and the slow decrease in data costs from telecoms companies, we will see a trend where net access via a mobile network will become even more prohibitive to users. The last ComReg Trends Report reflects this where on page 32 it seems to show that less people are using their mobile phone for net access than last year. Also on page 21: 48% answered no to: “Do you think there is adequate choice of mobile service providers at competitive prices in Ireland?”
Mobile companies need to encourage widespread use of this technology instead of preventing all but the wealthiest of customers from utilizing this method of Internet access. If the text message services were priced in the same way as the data access services we would never have become one of the most prolific countries in the world for sms usage, something which helps generate one of the highest ARPUs worldwide.
It has been lauded by ComReg and the DCMNR that accessing the Internet via a mobile network is a viable alternative but this currently is not the case and I cannot see this becoming a reality with current attitudes in the mobile sector.