Mobile Internet revolution…delayed?
Friday, 14. March 2008, 15:54:06
Digi writes that there is almost zero growth in the usage of Internet on mobile phones. A representative from NetCom, the TeliaSonera-owned second largest mobile phone carrier in Norway, is cited saying that the traffic on their flatrate subscriptions, “Connect”, tripled last year, while use on their regular subscriptions is more or less standing still.
Well, it isn’t very surprising, considering that they still charge 20 NOK (about 2.50€) to a megabyte for their regular subscription plans, the price has been at the same level for the last ten years, while rates for regular phone calls or text messages has dropped significantly. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the data charges are expensive, just downloading the front page of a normal on-line newspaper (not the mobile version) would cost 20-40 NOK, and watching a video clip on your mobile phone will probably ruin you. Add to that if you happen to do this while roaming abroad, where data rates often are ten times or more.
I am switching over from NetCom to OneCall this month. Their data rates are a quarter of NetCom’s, so I might actually use Opera on my mobile more than just to load the very-lightweight WAP version of the Oslo route planner, and while using a local hotspot somewhere. I also use Opera Mini every now and then when I want to read a site that where surfing with images off (as I do in the regular Opera Mobile) doesn’t work very well, but that costs a bit as well.
Well, it isn’t very surprising, considering that they still charge 20 NOK (about 2.50€) to a megabyte for their regular subscription plans, the price has been at the same level for the last ten years, while rates for regular phone calls or text messages has dropped significantly. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the data charges are expensive, just downloading the front page of a normal on-line newspaper (not the mobile version) would cost 20-40 NOK, and watching a video clip on your mobile phone will probably ruin you. Add to that if you happen to do this while roaming abroad, where data rates often are ten times or more.
I am switching over from NetCom to OneCall this month. Their data rates are a quarter of NetCom’s, so I might actually use Opera on my mobile more than just to load the very-lightweight WAP version of the Oslo route planner, and while using a local hotspot somewhere. I also use Opera Mini every now and then when I want to read a site that where surfing with images off (as I do in the regular Opera Mobile) doesn’t work very well, but that costs a bit as well.
