I hinted in an earlier blog to my grievances at the current mobile data charges in the UK. Vodafone’s bundle is for 120Mb, but at least they stopped calling it fair usage over the Christmas period and started being more up front with it as a real cap before your incur further charges. I was initially trying to resist Vodafone because of the mobile internet allowances, preferring T-Mobile who were coming in with a 1Gb fair usage policy on their standard Web’n'Walk package (which did actually seem fair), or maybe 3 with with the same 1Gb cap, but Vodafone have done well and got exclusive deals on many good phones, including the Nokia E61i – the one I wanted. O2 are scraping in with 200Mb fair usage policy. comparable to that of Vodafone, but it’s Orange who really come out worst out of the bunch, coming in with 25Mb – “The Offer is subject to a fair usage level of 25Mb per day and is not to be used for other activities such as, non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing, non-Orange internet based video.” – not sure how that can be considered as fair.

I circumnavigate the data charges by saving on my excessive usage when I’m in range of one of my favourite wifi hotspots. Hopefully the area of mobile internet charges will go through some competitive pressure and, fingers crossed, see some changes over 2008. I’m sure it’s dampening peoples desires to access more creative mobile services, although until there’s something to apply the pressure I don’t see why the MNOs would change their strategy, especially when each operator is happy to encourage customers to use their own web services at a more attractive data rate. Widespread Wimax usage is several years off in the UK whilst we wait for the analogue broadcast signals to be switched off. Maybe initiatives like Wippies (the wireless hippies) who are providing communal wifi hoping – will add some fun to the mix. I also wonder how many people in the UK actually are influenced by the data charges package when they sign up for a contract, it probably is still only a small (but growing) percentage

In the meantime we’ll hear more stories like Ian Simpson ringing up £27K data charges in a month or a MoMo group member (and Blackberry user) who got a bill for £600 in a month for using the wrong APN.