Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Unlimited Data: Sustainable?

There's a change stirring in the wireless world. Telecom companies are looking at the prospect of seeing their pipes get clogged. When the offer of unlimited data came out, over 5 years ago, nobody imagined that they would have a problem keeping up with data demands. After all, mobile web stripped most of the images and bandwidth heavy content out of websites, right? Little did they know, mobile web would change.

I don't mean to pick on any one product, nor to promote any one product, but it cannot be denied that Apple changed the wireless world. The iPhone came complete with it's fully capable browser and HTML email client, an App Store where entire software programs are downloaded, not to mention the explosion of social media--sharing thoughts, pictures, and even full videos. The result: the traffic is flooding the highway, and traffic is starting to make the owners of that highway very nervous.

So much so, in fact, that before the problem arises, steps are being taken to make sure the all-out gridlock doesn't happen. AT&T is making some sweeping changes to their data plans, most notably, the elimination of "unlimited." Nobody could ever have imagined just how high that limit would be. Is this a trend that will take shape across the industry?

CNET reported in June that, at least for now, Verizon is going to keep unlimited data on the table for their droid users. As the CNET author states, this is undoubtedly a measure to continue taking market share from iPhone users. But the doubt looms: will they be able to hold out long?

As bandwidth usage increases, that means that demand increases. Marketing 101 tells us that when demand is high but supply is low, the cost climbs and climbs. Until our wireless infrastructure grows to meet the demands, we need to become comfortable with paying for the services we demand. As broadband users, we demand streaming video, VoIP, conferencing, CDP, mirroring, file sharing, and the list goes on. A fair price is only fair, and quite honestly, may help some mobile users to begin thinking more conscientiously about how they use their piece of the data pie.

Labels: ATT, Unlimited Data, Verizon