Preventing Mobile Bill Shock

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The rash of high-profile bill shock cases, often due to heavy data
usage while roaming, has caused consumer uproar and triggered
regulatory activities in both the US. and Europe.



In March 2009, the European Commission introduced new legislation aimed
at eliminating bill shock while roaming in the European Union. European
operators there are now required to introduce maximum financial limits
of €50 per month for data roaming charges, which is enforced on an
opt-in basis until July 1st, 2010 when all customers will be capped
unless the consumer chooses to opt out or modify their cap.



They are also required to warn customers when 80 per cent of this limit
is reached. Once the full limit is reached, another notification must
be sent indicating the procedure to be followed if the customer wishes
to continue data roaming.



Although similar legislation is not currently under consideration in
Asia Pacific, bill shock incidents are affecting Asian consumers,
particularly when they are unable to monitor their roaming usage while
travelling.   Some operators have reported losing post paid
customers after they were shocked by their bills after switching from
pre-paid plans. 



In an environment in which flat-rate data plans are now giving way to
tiered usage models, lack of transparency can deter potential
subscribers from signing up for service, or prevent them from using all
of the features that they are paying for — features that are designed
to increase customer loyalty.



For operators this means that consumers will regularly breach caps
without knowing it — resulting in unpopular overage charges or bill
forgiveness — where the operator forgives the extra bandwidth costs in
order to maintain the customer relationship.



The Operator Challenge



The lack of consumer transparency into data usage presents operators
with complex challenges, including the potential for customer churn,
the threat of costly litigation, and negative publicity.



The best way to address these challenges is to ensure that subscribers
do not incur unintended charges in the first place, but it is crucial
that operators do so without imposing hard limits that negatively
impact the subscriber experience.



To strike the right balance, operators must go beyond action purely
driven by regulatory compliance and address the wider issue of how
subscribers can personalize their services and manage their mobile
activities on an ongoing basis.



There are multiple but complementary steps that operators can take:



Empower subscribers with the flexibility and control to set up their
account options on the basis of their usage models, providing them with
an easy-to-use, intuitive interface to change personal settings as
needed. This includes enabling personalized data usage limits that can
be set by individual subscribers, family plan members, and enterprise
users.

Provide transparent access to account information, including
usage-to-date and allowances that help subscribers understand their
data usage and manage it more effectively over the billing cycle. This
information can be made available on a self-service portal, or even
more conveniently as an application that is immediately accessible by
the customer on the device.

Enable temporary override settings in response to specific events, such
as attending a video conference call or watching highlights of a
football match. Providing the casual user with the ability to pay for
additional speed or bandwidth on the occasion when they really need it
is a powerful tool.

Offer data usage information in the form of proactive notifications to
subscribers about thresholds including approaching monthly limits,
additional charges to be imposed during international roaming, or
downspeeding triggered by sustained high traffic. This proactive
notification is essential to building consumer confidence in the
adoption and use of data services.



As flat-rate plans are phased out in favour of tiered and usage based
pricing models, subscribers are more likely to take up plans where cost
controls are built in. These cost controls foster greater consumer
trust and satisfaction, which equates to less churn, a reduction in
call centre activity, and lower operating costs.



There are other cost and revenue implications to consider. Lack of
visibility into roaming charges has many users frequently turning data
off while roaming abroad or outside of their home network. This results
in lost revenue for operators. Offering consumers real-time control
over roaming limits not only enables operators to meet regulations but
builds certainty and trust.



Conclusion



Mobile bill shock is fundamentally detrimental to the subscriber
experience, preventing uptake of new services and generating
significant bad publicity for operators. Regulation in Europe and the
Federal Communications Commission's consultations in the U.S. mean that
operators must act now to improve the mobile data experience of their
subscribers. However, these catalysts for implementing bill shock
prevention measures offer operators a far greater opportunity than
compliance alone.



Operators stand to benefit by leading the evolution towards a more
transparent and powerful framework that hands control of the mobile
experience over to the consumer and allows operators to use their
network resources more efficiently.



Operators that provide greater transparency also benefit from a closer
dialogue with their consumers based on real-time analysis of consumer
attitudes, preferences, and usage models.



Unification of subscriber, application, and network information by
applying a policy control approach enables mobile operators to manage
data traffic, prevent mobile bill shock, ensure fair usage and give
subscribers greater control of their mobile data experience.



Importantly, as voice revenues continue to fall, this smart approach
creates additional revenue opportunities for operators by removing
barriers to service adoption, and prevents the painful cost associated
with bill forgiveness, whether on the home network or while roaming.