The latest mobile networks will allow customers to take advantage of data services like mobile email, but the industry is unsure how to charge for them. Many mobile operators have yet to work out how they are going to charge customers for the data services they intend to offer over their expensive new networks, analysts and industry players said on Monday.
A recent survey of hundreds of operators by Chorleywood Consultants shows that the majority of mobile carriers want to save costs by extending the normal five-year lifespan of current billing systems by up to 10 years. This means that many operators will continue to operate billing systems that are designed for voice calls and not for the data services expected to be run over the new networks.
Using current billing systems, operators can charge only for the time that people are connected, for the number of SMS messages they send, or the amount of bytes of data downloaded, said Teresa Cottam, head of research at Chorleywood, a London-based customer care consultancy to the telecoms industry.
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