Emerging market ops eye new mobile broadband pricing models

Leading mobile operators in India and Bangladesh are mulling a range of new pricing models in order to support their new mobile broadband networks. Speaking on a panel at the Mobile Asia Congress this afternoon, Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate affairs officer at India’s Idea Cellular, Riyead Mahmud of Bangladesh’s GrameenPhone and Telenor Asia’s Sigve Brekke all agreed that there was a demand for mobile broadband but that delivering services would be a challenge in markets where prices are among the lowest in the world. “We have low ARPU on voice and [mobile broadband] data will not be much different, so we need to look at pricing,” said Mahmud. “It definitely can’t be a flat rate, it must be variable.” Telenor’s Brekke agreed, suggesting that mobile broadband pricing should be introduced on a per-day or per-week prepaid basis. “It’s very important to keep customers in control of their spending,” he said. “Mobile broadband is a big opportunity in Asia but only if we get the pricing strategies right.”

India is set to begin rolling out mobile broadband next year following the expected award of 3G licenses in January, but Idea Cellular’s Mukarji warned of continuing price pressures in the market due to growing competition and the introduction of per-second billing, which he said could affect new data services. “There will be a very few users at the top using a vast amount of data and our network planning will have to support them rather than the average user,” he said. “But Indian operators can’t afford to pay for huge network rollouts so operators will need to look at active tower sharing and maybe using WiMAX in the backhaul.” However, he added that mobile broadband would become the “first screen” for many Indians and predicted that it would be driven by localised applications and content. In Bangladesh, Mahmud said that GrameenPhone was building its mobile broadband strategy around its Community Information Centers (CIC), shared premises in rural areas offering Internet services to the local community. Meanwhile, Telenor – which owns 62 percent of GrameenPhone – is scheduled to launch its new Indian network soon. But Telenor’s Brekke said he did not see mobile broadband as a replacement for fixed-line in such markets. “We won’t be focusing on huge capacity, we will be focusing on coverage and services,” he said.