O2 exec: ‘flat rate data would kill our network’

By on May 1, 2007 in News

I had a note in from a very reliable person who was speaking with an o2 UK executive recently. The exec apparently admitted that they can’t launch a flat rate data because it would ‘break their network.’

Ridiculous. Is that really the case?

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Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.
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  • http://www.shopqwik.co.uk Mark

    Bollocks !

  • http://www.sendmytxt.com Alex

    Quite possibly, depending on how the network has been designed in terms of backhaul from the cells. AFAIK most of their backhaul is fibre, so shouldn’t be exactly rocket science to upgrade the links.

  • shovel

    Frankly, it says a lot that that’s never occurred to you.

    O2 are a special case because they have systematically under-invested, but cellular ain’t like DSL. Capcity is carefully judged to meet expected traffic levels, and adding more capacity means building more towers. Giving everyone unretricted inernet access at low prices would have a significant impact on traffic, and if the network is built with voice use only in mind, then yes, you would kill the network.

  • http://www.symbian-guru.com Ricky

    That’s funny, seeing as how all of the American carriers have flat rate unlimited data plans available. Wonder if someone pointed out that *apparently* the US networks are stronger than the European, if they’d change their stance….

  • shovel

    US networks have the advantage of MUCH lower population density, even in cities (except in the USA). even so, they spend a lot more on capex than europeanc arriers.

  • Mike

    Anyone at Internet World yesterday heard the O2 head of products/marketing etc say just that. Not the exact word ‘kill’ because he wrapped it up in marketingspeke, but the very clear message was that they won’t do it because even a small number of flat-rate users would overload their network.

    o2 have the smallest 3G network – about 5,000 cells AFAIK. That’s about what Three had when they launched 4 years ago, and everyone remembers how badly that went. 3G coverage at 2100MHz is a verrrry different kettle of crustaceans than 2G at 900. To get a slight improvement in performance you need a lot more sites – especially in-building, where most mobile content is consumed.

    And as Shovel says, Us networks do have much lower densities. That’s why some of their cellsites are 300ft high!

  • http://www.itagg.com steve procter

    “whine whinge, break our networks, whine whine whine”. That is all I ever here from the operators. total and utter shite! The networks are totally hacking me off. They are such a bunch of whining arses.

    Pull your fingers out of your backsides, slap each other across the faces and start providing real groundbreaking services that the customer would want, rather than screwing us all into the ground. I have never come across such a backward industry as the mobile operators. Their poor financial ability to find smart models that work “for” the consumer, and the inability to innovate is totally strangling the true potential of mobile communications. The way they work against the rest of the mobile industry is so disgusting it pains me every time I read about them. The incredible work being done in VOIP for example but the “whine oh the technology isn’t good enough yet whinge” tosh they come out with just….aaarrrggggghhhh, gets to me.

    I have written this here but could have applied it to loads of the topics brought up almost daily on here about the network operators.

    I doubt this wins me any friends in the operators and as founder of itagg, a company that provides sms services to businesses, it does seem strange to be at such odds with the operators. But something just isn’t right with them.

    Sorry Ewan to be so forthright on here and feel free to bleep my occasional dodgy words ;-) I just feel we are all in a boat together and all the innovators are rowing one way and the mobile operators are rowing backwards – and not accidently either!!

    steve

  • http://www.sendmytxt.com Alex

    Go Steve.. Go Steve.. there was me thinking the network police had come and whisked you off in a black van with blacked out windows ;)

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