Make mobile data costs clearer, says RIM

Senior representatives at RIM and Sony Ericsson have suggested operators need to make data pricing simpler for users and IT managers to understand.

Speaking at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London on Wednesday, RIM's vice president, Charmaine Eggberry, told silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK that users generally found it hard to predict how much it costs to download data.

Referring to fixed-price short messages and their easily understandable bundled packages, Eggberry said: "The key focus area for carriers is to make it simpler to understand, because [users] come from a text-message mentality."

Speaking to delegates earlier in the day, Eggberry identified pricing and security as key barriers for IT managers and CIOs when it came to making decisions on mobile data.

Henrik Voigt, director of enterprise solutions for Sony Ericsson, also suggested data costs are currently too unpredictable in the UK.

Voigt said: "In the enterprise area, those who have their [phone usage] paid for by the company don't care but when it comes to solutions like the BlackBerry, cost is [an area] where companies are afraid."

He said: "Cost control is key," adding that companies "can accept costs but they don't want surprises".

T-Mobile has so far been the only UK operator to offer entirely flat-rate data pricing, although Orange recently launched an off-peak unlimited browsing and data bolt-on for its customers.

David Meyer writes for ZDNet UK