T-Mobile users will be in for a surprise coming this fall. SMS overage chargers will be increased from 15 cents to 20 cents. To grandfathered BuddyTime customers and those on unlimited message plans this means absolutely nothing, but to others you need to start regulating your monthly messages.
The change will take effect August 29.
[via: BGR]
I know its completely off topic from messaging, but who can resist free Wifi AND Starbucks coffee!
In its efforts to break away from the 7 year Hot-Spot relationship with T-Mobile, Starbucks is offering its customers 2 hours of free AT&T WiFi plus a voucher for a free drink.
Why did the relationship end? Who really knows. But T-Mobile customers can still use WiFi at Starbucks through a roaming agreement with AT&T.
The requirements are simple.
via: USA Today
Some recent announcements struck my attention and made me realize that providers not only in the US are trying to pull strings in order to get consumers back into the habit of using their services.
Something that is common practice here in the US between carrier and manufacturer has spread across to Germany and possibly (although not officially stated) other parts of Europe. T-Mobile Germany will be pulling all Nokia handsets (not that there are any available currently) that can access Nokia’s Ovi service. Their reason for doing so is clearly because they want consumers to utilize the similar services that they offer and charge for it. To sum this all up… they want to have a service branded device. Very much like the Nokia N75 offered by AT&T here.
In conjunction to this finding, Nokia has announced today during CeBIT a new carrier specific device which has taken on the model number of the olden days. The Nokia 6650 will of course be T-Mobile branded and specific to the carriers portal of services. Did anyone see this coming?
To me it seems that T-Mobile wants a piece of the pie. I’m sure Nokia didn’t project this, but then again they did accommodate them with a device. But since Ovi can be accessed from any device with a browser just what is it that T-Mobile is so worried about?
Hours after Verizon Wireless announced their unlimited calling plan for $99, AT&T responds with a $99 plan of their own. And not to be outdone, T-Mobile USA this afternoon announced a $99 calling plan and then ups the ante by adding unlimited messaging. Sprint, the other of the top four carriers, has yet to release their nationwide unlimited plan. The question is: will they further up the ante and put pressure on these shiny new flat-rate plans?
Verzion’s Offer Details
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AT&T’s Offer Details
T-Mobile USA’s Offer Details
So Sprint? Last May Sprint began offering an unlimited rate plan bundling nationwide voice, web access, email and messaging for $119. The offer has been limited to markets in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa, Fla., and parts of Northern California and Western Nevada. Today Sprint claims they have no plans for expanding their unlimited plan beyond these markets. The office pool betting opens at COB today. Place your bets on an announcement for tomorrow morning. Anyone?
Winners: Power Users
Losers: Stock Prices Fall for All Four Top US Carriers
Yawners: Non-Power User Mobile Subscribers
Carriers strike quickly to eliminate Verzion’s differinator on price announced this morning, and up the ante each time. Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford C. Berstein, compares Verzion’s bold move on flat-rate plans to Sprint’s long distance flat rates for landlines in the 1990s, removing confusion from pricing plans, making them easier to compare and hastening a rapid decline in prices. Today’s standard for long-distance is either free or as a feature in a service bundle.
Let the games begin!
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This site on the future of mobile messaging is sponsored by Airwide Solutions. More info on the blog here.
Commentary from Airwide CEO Kevin Wood on Telecom TV
Worldwide, mobile operators are struggling to maintain their current ARPU levels as competition drives ever-lower pricing for voice minutes and text messaging plans. At the same time, operators are trying to determine what is the secret to developing the next generation of applications and services that enable them to attract new customers, reduce churn and to get more value from their existing customers.
But predicting the next "killer app" is not that simple. And the mobile industry is infamous for bouncing from one topic to the next in a desperate search for the next great app.
Predicting the future is the art of seeing the present logically extended. Given the degree of interdependency -- and invested capital -- among the key players in the value chain, changes in the industry will likely be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Hear Airwide CEO Kevin Wood highlight 4 key factors he sees in predicting the future of mobile messaging applications and services in this interview with Telecom TV.
Watch the video
Airwide Solutions, the sponsor of this site, recently published a white paper by Vince Kadar, their CTO, on their beliefs about how mobile messaging is evolving and why this next generation of infrastructure and applications merits the "2.0" moniker. Airwide invites you to read and react to the paper - it's eager to engage with and learn from those interested in the future of mobile messaging.
Read the white paper.
It is editorially managed and produced by Corante.
Global Messaging Conference, Monaco
