My mobile contract in the UK is $20 per month for 1000Gb on 4G with tethering permitted, 5000 voice minutes to the same carrier, 2000 voice minutes to any other carrier and 5000 text messages.
It is not just the Zero Rating that is evil.
It is not just the Zero Rating that is evil.
I've just checked and the recurring charge I pay gets:
£12 goodybag: will include UK 3GB, 500 minutes, unlimited texts (was 250 minutes, unlimited data)
So thanks to your post I've just discovered I'm no longer getting the service I thought I was! It seems they sent a "changes to your service" email which I didn't read because I assumed it was ToS changes.
edited to add: This is 3G and not even 4G!
£17, my $20 is slightly off
I’m talking about the issue of “zero rating”: the practice being followed by mobile carriers around the world to provide Web access “for free” to their users to certain chosen services.
But all other OECD countries have some flavor of zero rating in place.
I've never heard of a UK or European carrier implementing "zero rating" services, so I'm not sure how far around the world this occurs and the only concrete examples given are in the US.
I'm with a dinky little PAYG plan in Austria at the moment, and I just pay EUR3.95 for 1GB as I need it, which I never seem to use very fast because the majority of the time I'm connected via WiFi. Even when I was moving house in the UK and tethered my phone, I think I only used about 6GB in the course of a month. Of course I was slightly careful with video streaming and other data heavy activities, but I didn't really restrict my Internet use.
Anyway, my point is, "zero rating" even if it did occur would have very little relevance when data is so cheap anyway. It seems to me that the root of the problem is overpriced data, and not the "zero rating" of some services.
Edit: As for voice and text. I use Telegram for all my heavy "texting" and a SIP provider for all calls. I think my total monthly mobile telephony bill is only about EUR10 with the Austrian PAYG plan and another $10 with the SIP provider.
I used to have massive mobile phone bills, sometimes in excess of £100 per month (average around £70), when I lived in the UK and traveled around Europe a lot. This was all down to charges while abroad, and apart from not accept incoming calls, there wasn't a lot I could do about it if I wanted to continue operating my business.
Historically it has happened in the UK. For example, "daily passes" of data coming with unlimited Facebook (on O2 PayG I believe) and some streaming music all over the place (Orange pre-EE, Virgin, et al).
I don't see anyone doing it currently as frankly data prices have become so inexpensive that it isn't as interesting of an offering. The UK is largely about price wars right now, who can offer the cheapest service. The gimmicks have mostly fallen by the wayside.
I'm talking back when 150 MB was a "lot" of data and 1 GB was over £35/month with a 12 month contract).
Zero rating facilitates overpriced data, which in turn incentivizes users to stay within the discount/zero web. Without zero rating, a broad consumer base will demand reasonable data rates, encouraging carriers to compete.
EDIT: Yes, I still tether, I stated it for completeness. You can get around the tethering nag by using SSL or VPN when tethered.
Plus most current plans come with SOME tethering (even the unlimited plans have limited tethering now).
I am clearly on a vastly inferior one with t-mobile and should switch.
17 quid a month on contract or payg