Mobile operators hedge bets on usage

Carriers retain ambiguous rules while they figure out business models

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

The mobile network operators are ambiguous in the language they use to specify what they do and don't allow on their networks. The grammarian in me has long assumed that they are just poor communicators. But my realist side has now concluded that ambiguity is a strategy carriers can hide behind to shut down data hogs simply by crying "violation!"

That's why I've been frustrated, as noted in a recent newsletter, with the lack of forthcoming information about, in particular, the use of cellular routers, as well as other wireless applications. Messages are mixed, and, at least in my experience, it's not possible to find someone within the companies to sit down and articulate the rules in a live conversation.

Tope wireless and mobile tech stories of 2010

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The mobile network operators are ambiguous in the language they use to specify what they do and don't allow on their networks. The grammarian in me has long assumed that they are just poor communicators. But my realist side has now concluded that ambiguity is a strategy carriers can hide behind to shut down data hogs simply by crying "violation!"

That's why I've been frustrated, as noted in a recent newsletter, with the lack of forthcoming information about, in particular, the use of cellular routers, as well as other wireless applications. Messages are mixed, and, at least in my experience, it's not possible to find someone within the companies to sit down and articulate the rules in a live conversation.

Tope wireless and mobile tech stories of 2010

Understandably, the mobile operators all want to be the hippest carrier with the lowest churn rate. But that means that they have to compete fiercely on price -- even if the prices they charge don't cover their costs. They want to sell mountains of trendy devices that their customers -- from the grade schooler to the CEO -- find absolutely aphrodisiacal. But the fact of the matter is that their networks can't handle the humongous networks loads generated by these devices.

So the carriers want their bread buttered on both sides (who doesn't?). They really, really want the business surrounding the latest and greatest multimedia mobile handsets. But they aren't equipped to handle it. How long can this go on?

The recently available 3G-capable version of the Apple iPad, which operates on AT&T's HSDPA network, has two-tiered pricing associated with it. You can pay $15 a month for 250MB of data (think probably e-mail and some browsing only), or $30 a month for unlimited use.

Now, whether unlimited really means unlimited is anyone's guess, as the habit of carriers is to place a soft cap of 5GB/month (about one downloaded two-hour movie) on their "unlimited" data plans.

So be prepared for new and creative price models that are likely to become increasingly usage-based. Though many of us consider mobile WANs and the Internet to be integral to our lives like water and power utilities, we don't all pay the utility companies the same flat monthly price. We pay for what we use. Why should network services be any different?

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.