| Author |
3G Pricing |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
Does anyone else think that the current price of downloading ringtones, wallpapers, etc is too high? I think that £1.50 for a wallpaper is rediculous, 25p would be a more suitable price. I know the networks and content providers have to make some money out of downloads, but they would almost certainly make a lot more money if they lowered their prices as more people would download more content more often.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
|
|
SsTiTcH
Joined: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 173
From: Kyoto.Singapore,Malaysia
PM |
Yes its outrageous what networks charge for downloads.. Luckily theres plenty of sites to get themes..games .. ringtones etc. for free.. Bloody network already makes a mint off my international calling..mms and sms..why shud i pay em more for stuff i can get free..
This message was posted from a K700i |
parsnip
Joined: Oct 26, 2004
Posts: 386
From: England
PM, WWW
|
Stupid 3 walled garden
This message was posted from a WAP device |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
Having had experience of both 3 and Vodafone's 3G services, I can say that neither of them are particuarly cheap when it comes to downloads. 3's news clips are only 25p each, which is quite reasonable in my opinion.
If the networks want to recoup the cost of their 3G licenses they will have to lower their prices to motivate people to buy their content.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
Vlammetje
Joined: Mar 01, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Den Haag
PM, WWW
|
Voda tv is 25 eurocent for 15 minutes (or for any portion of 15 minutes) but rumour has it prices will increase to 2 or 3 euro er 15 minutes in Feb 2005.
Now that is toooooo expensive imho
|
amnesia
Joined: Jan 15, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Doha, London, Tokyo, Shanghai
PM, WWW
|
i just dont understand network pricing anymore
|
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
I don't think we shall see lower prices until 3G has been better established and has more customers. More advanced features should help to reduce prices further as older features e.g. ringtones come down in price.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
PM, WWW
|
To be honest, I'm going to stay put on 2G until the pricing on their data and internet services come down, more networks have a 3G service up and running (therefore more competition), and the signals are much, MUCH better. Where I live, I can just about get a 3G signal on 3, Orange and Voda forget it at the moment!
Apparently Voda don't do it, but I'm hoping the practice of ringfencing you into that particular network's services and not letting you out to other sites (e.g. Esato) has to stop too, so people can make full use of the faster download speeds and access other sites too
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
|
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
@Sam
I imagine that we shall see a great improvement in 3G over the next year, not just in terms of infrastructure, but also in terms of the services provided to customers.
The ring-fencing approach of 3 will almost certainly have to end if they want to remain competitive, they will loose customers if they don't. 3 are gaining customers by massively undercutting their competitors, not through their data services. Once 3's data services become a dominant factor in customer acquisition they will have to reconsider their ring-fencing approach and pricing levels.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
voda_jon
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: > 500
PM |
The pricing on Vodafone Live! comes from many different things... The first one is obviously profit... but u also have to take into consideration things like developers costs, hosting costs (even vodafone have to pay for hosting a LOT of files), publishers fees, and royalties to the people who make the content... There is also the associated cost in keeping the service working and up to date every day...
Vodafone are slowly starting to offer more for your money with things like free sports, news, weather info and downloads on the new 3G price plans and half price ringtones and other good offers every now and then.
Once the general public start using the services a lot more then the prices in turn will come down as well...
i gotta go now coz the roof on ma shed is bein blown down the street!!! |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
@voda_jon
I understand that the networks have to cover costs and make a profit, but that still doesn't mean they should overprice their content and services. A wallpaper image costing £1.50 does not use up a huge amount of resources to store, not does it require a heavy use of resources to sell.
If the networks were to make their prices much lower they would probably see a massive rise in data usage and revenue as customers would be more willing to pay for content that they can get free from the internet.
If the networks want people to continue buying what they can get for free and mor eoften, then prices have to come down. If the networks were to massively reduce their content charges now, it would, in my opinion. give their 3G sales a massive boost. I would imagine that many customers would like the idea of being able to download content very quickly and not having to pay a lot of money to do so.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
701
Joined: Nov 26, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Romania
PM, WWW
|
the truth is that the media content and data services arent the dominant business in the gsm nets so they r tryin to do the best out of it.One wallpapets costs to themmaybe 3 cents(royalities,fees,hosting) so the profit is 1500% for each customer that downloads that. Multiply it with thousands of customers across the countr and stop finding excuses for them.We r the cows with the milk :D I never bought media contentcuz i have it 4 free over the net but i know lots of others too lazy to complicate themselves so they buy it..it wont work with high prices.They will have to cut it downin order to sell something,anything..
This message was posted from a WAP device |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
PM, WWW
|
@701
Not everyone is technical minded and many people may not know how to get free content from the internet, indeed I suspect tht this scenario would apply to most mobile users.
Data is not the primary source of revenue for the networks, but as 3G becomes more prevalent data services will start to account for more and more of the revenue networks receive. The networks could do themselves a huge favour by making data sevices so cheap that people want to use them on a regular basis.
3G has a great deal of potential with regards to data services, but only if the pricing is at a level customers find acceptable, the current pricing structure just doesn't cut it in my opinion.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
wagawaga
Joined: Dec 28, 2004
Posts: 32
PM |
Swiss prices: Voda live TV here is
4.00 CHF / 2.58€ for 30 minutes or (an expensive way to impress your friends)
8.00 CHF / 5.17€ for 2 hours or
12.00 CHF / 7.75€ for 24 hours access (data transfer included in these prices. 24 hours are ok if you think how much data get effectively transferred).
Wallpapers are 2.50 CHF / 1.60€
Reading news is
0.50 CHF / 0.32€ for 30 minutes (ridiculous!)
2.00 CHF / 1.29€ for 1 week
3.00 CHF / 1.94€ for 1 month access (ok if you use it daily)
Additionally, data access for 1 megabyte is 10 CHF / 6.46€, but there is a VodafoneLive-data-flatrate you can subscribe to for 5 CHf / 3.23€ (ridiculously high if you ask me...  )
I'm reading websites regularly through the google web2wap converter, but am not using any of the other stuff (except showing off Live TV  ). I'd say give us an unlimited data flatrate for 20 CHF / 13€ and we're talkin'  |
dave_uk
Joined: Mar 06, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: London, UK
PM |
I wouldn't be so sure about an impending price reduction. I think that what we are seeing at the moment with ringfenced content from 3 and Vodafone continuing overpricing their 2G services into 3G as well, is the networks trying to recover some of the massively over-inflated costs of the licences they bought in '99. It looks as though the regulators, at least in the UK, are starting to crackdown (albeit far too slowly) on the stealth collaboration between operators that is leading to consumers getting a raw (aka expensive) deal. Therefore, until anti-competitive prices are forced down by the likes of Ofcom, I can't see prices falling. The networks will want to squeeze as much profit out of consumers as possible early on, so that they might run into profitability sometime before 5G comes along!
Just MHO....
|
|
|
Posted: 2004-12-30 23:23
