HOGWASH! HOGWASH! Orange & their data policies
Only once today, at the Nokia World conference, did I feel like yelling HOGWASH in an extremely loud voice from the back of the room.
The issue? Orange. Yes. My old friend Orange and their stupidly annoying data policies (“unlimited off peak data”).
This sub conference featured Yves Maitre of Orange. Yves is highly regarded across the industry by many for implementing a phenomenal segmentation policy. (Tip of the hat to Rafe, there)
So I watched his Q&A with interest.
I was about to put my hand up to ask a question — Clive Anderson, the host, was appealing for more for — when a chap in front of me stood up and asked about data download costs.
He was referring to videos and music — Clive rephrased the question to make it a little more general.
The first thing that happened to Yves when he heard the word ‘data’ was that he crossed his arms.
I kid ye not. Look at the photo!! I took a photo of this happening.
Then he began an explanation — I’m paraphrasing — words to the effect of, ‘Well, it’s awfully expensive to run a mobile network you know,’ and, ‘We spent a lot of money fitting out the service for mobile broadband,’ and so on.
That ain’t the issue.
That ain’t my problem.
That’s your problem.
There’s absolutely no excuse for Orange’s stupid data policies — and this is where I felt like yelling, ‘HOLD ON A MOMENT! T-MOBILE CAN DO IT, RELIABLY’.
I didn’t though. Best to avoid heckling I thought.
However, whilst I thoroughly disagree with the stupid cost per meg policies of the likes of o2, Orange and Vodafone… you can’t help but think they’ve got something right. There’s a ton of people paying three pounds a meg still. They don’t seem to care that much… and what’s more, they’re not stressing out the operator networks with a lot of data usage. So maybe it is, after all, the right way ahead….
