Analyst: Carriers set to introduce usage-based mobile data pricing

This year may well be the year that wireless operators adopt usage-based pricing models for their heavy-volume mobile data users, according to analyst firm Deloitte. With smartphone traffic eating up increasing amounts of data capacity and a small percentage of those users hogging the largest percentage of that bandwidth, carriers have little choice but to abandon their all-you-can-eat smartphone data plans and implement pricing models more equitable to all of their customers, said Phil Asmundson, Deloitte vice chairman and leader of the firm's US technology, media and telecommunications group. "If you look at what's happening today, they're being forced by necessity to adopt usage-based models," Asmundson said. "All-you-can-eat business models depend on your ability to predict how much data your customers will consume. The iPhone has proven that you can't make those kind of predictions." Due to that lack of predictability, operators are witnessing their data traffic increase at far faster rates than their revenues, but the balance is highly skewed toward high-volume users who not only are using more than their 'fair' share of capacity and limited network resources but are degrading the user experience for all customers, Asmundson said.