[3GScottishUser]

The numpties at Orange are still charging contract users £1 per MB for their daft data.

They are spending a fortune signing up customers and subsidising 3G handsets to get nothing in return. Unless they think customers are stupid enough to continue to use the ridiculous 1GB per month allowance past the 2 month free period.

Orange have to be the least data friendly network in the UK and they have made no realistic effort to generate revenues from 3G whatsoever.

What an shameful dissapointment..... both for them and the customers who bought into their converged service.

Hmmmm.....

[3g-g]

Do you do a lot of data transfer 3GSU?

I think as you have identified the only network worth considering for data is T-Mob, perhaps a buyout of the remainder of you contracts with Orange and Vodafone would be a good idea, not least for your blood pressure! ;)

You're right, data pricing is terrible, but I still think data use (as we would like it) is such a minimal income stream for the operators, it's still all talk and text, and until such time as data use picks up there'll be a higher charge on it.

What do you have left on your respective contracts?

[3GScottishUser]

I have a while to go with Orange yet.

Not a huge data user but it is frustrating having all that technology and not being able to use it!!

The lesson all companies have learnt is that until prices are affordable mass take up does'nt happen. I suspect that is the case with 3G data presently.

I am kind of hoping Orange will roll out something over the Summer to compete with Web'N'Walk and Vodafone's new £1 a day offering.

[Ben]

I don't think data use can pick up until there's more reasonable pricing.

I believe that when SMS started to catch on it wasn't actually charged for at all on certain tariffs. SMS just wasn't a documented feature, but folk found their own uses for it and the networks charged accordingly. Even when charging was in place, it was so easy to change one's SMSC number to another operators and send messages for free - up until only a few years ago young people made a massive sport out of exploiting this.

Mobile data has been too expensive from the start. Users aren't going to pay for something that they don't think they need. If, years ago, the networks had allowed data usage to go free (O2 sort-of did, but I don't think intentionally... they have some loyal data users because of it) then now, with the arrival of 'multimedia computers' as phones there would probably be enough data hungry folk out there to start introducing very cheap tariffs.

The very notion of charging per megabyte is so mysterious anyway that it's hardly surprising end users have shunned data. TCP/IP overheads on data are so huge, relatively speaking, that a megabyte just doesn't go that far.

I think what I'd quite like to see is automatic tiered pricing on data. Say up to 10MB is capped at £3, up to 500MB at £10 and finally £15 for fair-usage of up to 1000MB, and completely open terms giving the user the chance to decide what to use data for. Then every subscriber is automatically on a reasonable data plan, and they know the maximum they can be charged in advance.

If revenues decline due to VoIP services etc, then take action. Don't be so restrictive in the first instance that nothing ever gets off the ground.

[Hands0n]

SMS when it was first charged for was £0.60p a pop - yes sixty pence. It was only when the price plummetted to 10p that it really took off. Big enablers were offerings from the likes of Genie, where a £10 top-up netted you 300 texts in addition to the minutes/texts you could buy for the tenner anyway!

But the operators have not learned from their own history, nor that of other retail companies. Data and Video are punitively priced as if to protect the network from overload or capacity issues. If these still exist in their 3G networks then shame on them. Because Data, as others have said, will not even begin to lift off while being priced so negatively.

[3g-g]

I'm off to Dublin next week so called Orange this evening to have roaming put on my personal phone as I'm taking that with me, as part of the process they're obliged to inform you of the pricing structure and charges from which country you're visiting, certainly a lot more transparent than the last time I had to do it.

The guy went through the script bit, which was fine, then he came to the data charge, £8 per MB for data abroad! Wow! I said, I certainly won't be using data then!! He then asked me how long I was going for told him it was just two days, so he credited my bill with £5 and said that should probably cover the cost of a few phone calls and texts! Nice work Orange CS fella! Saves me paying for the privilege of taking my phone away, I came off the call feeling rather happy with the experience!

Just for reference, a little tool (for those on Orange anyway) if you're traveling abroad and want to know the charges for calling home if you text "from" then a space and then the country you're visiting to 159 they'll send you a text with the charges, it's free to send the text too.

[Ben]

Nice touch! I think they gave me some credit the last time I went away... I can't remember. I do know my bill was still huge when I got back ;)