S60 Open to new features

It’s good to be back. Holidays are always too short, but I think we Finns are quite lucky in this respect. 4 or 5 weeks is enough to get batteries full.

During the summer, I didn’t install a single new application to my phone. No single idea about new features or useless features. Usually it has taken longer to clean up my mind about work related issues, but I’m certainly getting better.

But back to business and let’s go back 9 years in time. Internet was young. Broadband even younger. Charging models changing. For example AoL changed it’s pricing from time based to flat monthly fee. I found interesting story: “Let's face it: Flat-rate online pricing is insupportable”

Everybody should back off, let AOL admit it made a mistake and allow the company to reinstitute its former pricing structure where people paid for what they used.

You know what happened.

Now in quite recent news I noticed this story. Flat-rate mobile web access 'doomed'.

Industry pricing is moving from flat-rate to subscription-based access," said Bernt Ostergaard, research director for business telecoms services in Europe at Current Analysis.

Industry has never been in flat-rate so how can it be moving out from it? There has been some flat rate offers here and there but that’s not a mainstream.

It’s quite fun to follow how this issue is handled inside telecom industry. We have created protocols which are suitable for wireless, consuming less power, less latency, less overhead (e.g. WAP). Very soon after that some folks are marketing data hungry applications to very same operators and finally operators are worried about P2P, which is too data hungry application. Just Yes, I know, discussion is about money not really about amount of data.
Flat fee is considered bad for mobile because some people will use it too much, for P2P, and consuming too much network resources. Similar concern exists in the fixed broadband side. Has been there in the beginning and rising again now in P2P era.

Fixed broadband charging is based on maximum data speed. This artificial limitation system is working fine. I don’t see any reason why similar model wouldn’t work in mobile. Different price for 64, 128, 384kbs. Some mobile operators have started to use this model and my prediction is that this is the future model regardless of the differences of fixed and mobile.