Further adventures in international mobile innovation

[Commentary] Opera Web Pass is a pay-as-you-go mobile broadband app targeted to customers who cannot afford, or otherwise refuse to purchase, costly monthly smartphone data plans.

The beauty of the Web Pass app is its flexibility. Consumers that have installed the Opera Mini app can use the app to purchase short-term data plans for weekly, daily, hourly, or even three-minute intervals, each at a different price.

Customers can choose unlimited web access, or can choose to purchase access only to specific sites such as Facebook or Twitter. And in a throwback to the NetZero model, Opera recently announced the debut of Opera Sponsored Web Pass, which grants the consumer a free web pass in exchange for watching a video ad before the session begins.

[Lyons is associate professor at Boston College Law School]