Will 3’s X-Series pricing disrupt operators’ business model?
No kidding it will, if 3 manages to be profitable.
SMS Text News report caught my attention today. And what an offer that is!
If they had it here in Canada - I would have signed up immediately!
Silver option (GBP 5 / month = USD 9.8 = CAD 11.13) will get you the following:
- Unlimited Windows Live Messenger* already included in your price plan
- Unlimited Skype to Skype calls*
- Unlimited data* to use on:
- Web surfing (Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Go)
- Mobile Mail (Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and other ISPs)
- Podcasts
- eBay - Free in your price plan
The Gold option (GBP 10 / month = USD 19.54 = CAD 22.27) gives the same, plus access to slingbox and orb.
That’s just awesome, compared with mine 2 Megs for CAD 5.
It is interesting that 3’s definition of “unlimited” amounts to the following:
- data - 1Gb / months, phone not used as a modem
- skype - 5000 minutes / month
- Windows Live Messenger - 10000 messages / month
- orb and slingbox - 80 hours / month
- and, according to Ewan from SMS Text News, 6000 (six thousand) MMS!!!
Well, today this pretty much could be considered as unlimited.
This is not too bad compared with “regular” plans from other operators. Especially if service offers are mapped: skype minutes to voice minutes, messages to SMS, and data offering is most probably not matched by anybody else. I think 3 is managing the risk here, betting that not all of the customers will fulfill their monthly usage quota.
Too bad this is not happening in North America, but at least 3 will put some pressure on others to come up with more sane data plan options. I hope.
