Vodafone CEO calls for end of “free-ism”

UK-based mobile operator Vodafone was one of the earliest providers to call an end to the all you can eat data buffet and CEO Vittorio Colao believes more tiers are on the way.

During a keynote presentation at Nokia World in London earlier this week, Colao said that the end of the culture of “free-ism” was approaching and data pricing had to adjust accordingly. The Vodafone chief said that streaming music and video were the biggest contributors to data traffic on Vodafone’s network and suggested that every class of service must have its own price – a hint at the more varied and sophisticated pricing strategies expected to come.

In June, Vodafone UK scrapped the fair usage policy on its 500MB Flexi or Value Pack offerings, introducing out of bundle charging for pay monthly customers that go over the 500MB limit. The carrier also introduced a real-time notification service to alert its customers to their usage patterns in an attempt to be completely transparent about these charges and to “protect [its] network from data abuse”.

The company’s German operation has already said that it will cap its LTE pricing plans based on speed when it launches them before year end. The operator will offer 10GB of data at 7.2Mbps for €40 a month, 15GB of data at 21.6MBps for €50, and 30GB at 50Mbps for €60.