In the future, wireless carriers could charge their customers based on application usage or usage during a specific time of day as a way of managing network data traffic. An application-based plan would provide the customer with unlimited access to an application or a group of applications. An example would be a social networking-friendly plan that would provide unlimited data when you were using Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare from your mobile phone. All other data would require an additional fee. Offering this type of plan would require deep packet inspection to filter based on app usage, but DPI solutions are already available.
The time-of-day plan offers similar constraints based on your daily usage patterns and lifestyle. Someone on the graveyard shift could choose a plan that offers 5GB of data between 9:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M., while the average joe with a 9 to 5 job could choose a day plan that includes data during business hours. These time-based plans would require an additional charge for usage outside your designated time slot.
These plans could be introduced by carriers as a way to entice customers to purchase a smartphone by lowering the overall monthly cost of smartphone ownership. Here in the U.S., smartphone adoption rate is slowed by the high cost of data. Customers looking to jump into a smartphone may be turned off by a $30 monthly charge for data, but they may be willing to pay $10 per month to access to their social networks or $15 to receive an allotment of data during business hours when they are away from a WiFi connection.
Orange already offers a time-based usage plan. Besides its Panther plan which includes 10GB of data for £25 ($39.40 USD), Orange also offers a less-expensive Dolphin plan for £15 ($23.58 USD) which provides unlimited web access during a “happy hour” that corresponds with your morning commute (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M.), lunch break (12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M.), late afternoon break (4:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.) or late night (10:00 P.M. – 11:00 P.M.).
These app and time usage-based plans are a break from the typical MB or GB allotment plans currently offered by wireless carriers. If you had the option, would you lower the cost of your data plan in exchange for usage limited to certain application or certain times of the day?
[Via GigaOM]