T-Mobile UK in U-turn on data caps
Existing customers will retain their current terms, but new users will have 500Mbytes cap
Published: 13 January, 2011
READ MORE: UK | T-Mobile (UK) | Billing
T-Mobile UK has performed a U-turn on plans to impose stringent data caps on existing customers, highlighting the awkward tightrope that cellcos are walking in trying to protect their networks from the explosion in data usage.
Most carriers in developed markets are introducing data caps and other curbs on the mobile YouTube brigade, though most with greater subtlety than TMo achieved. Earlier this week it said that, from February 1, fair usage limits of just 500Mbytes per month would be introduced for monthly deals that include browsing. This halved the existing cap of 1Gbyte, or 3Gbytes for Android smartphones.
The UK operator - now part of the Everything Everywhere joint venture, but with its own brand and tariffs - is not abandoning its plans to reduce data allowances for contract customers. But the new rules will now only apply to new customers or those upgrading - which could increase the cellco's churn, especially given the level of publicity its new terms have attracted.
Much of this poor PR came not from the caps themselves, but TMo's statement advising its customers to keep heavy duty tasks for their home broadband connection. "If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband," said the cellco's web site, at odds with the claims of many operators that their HSPA networks are sufficiently fast and robust to double as fixed home broadband lines.
Following the complaints, current contract subscribers will not now find themselves immediately slapped with new data caps, however, following an outcry at TMo's decision. "Following a further review of our policy, these changes will now be introduced from 1 February to new and upgrading customers only - not existing customers," VP Lysa Hardy told Total Telecom.
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