Based on research which compared mobile data pricing, ABI Research found that T-Mobile U.K. and Indosat (News - Alert) in Indonesia offer the lowest prices for mobile broadband plans.

Indosat provides its customers with unlimited data usage plan called StarOne BIS for a monthly flat rate of $13.52, while T-Mobile provides unlimited data usage plan, Mobile Broadband Plus, for $15.47 per month.

The research found that Asian telecommunications companies offer their customers some of the lowest-priced plans. The companies deliberately maintained low pricing policies in the region primarily because companies such as SingTel, Indosat, BSNL and China Unicom (News - Alert) are managed by their governments. However, several of these government run telecom companies are slowly loosening their control over the telecommunications market in their respective countries.

In a release, ABI Research associate Lim Shiyang said, “The partial deregulation of the telecommunications sector in Asia has allowed for a market-based model of competition. Industry dynamics have changed as prices now depend on competition within countries, rather than pricing caps.”

Several Italian operators have come up with unique payment methods for their services such as charging customers on a per-hour usage basis while in Japan, while NTT DoCoMo (News - Alert) employs a per-packet charge which includes 128 Bytes and customers are charged according to the number of packets used, instead of being charged over MB or GB used.

Neil Strother, mobile services practice director for ABI Research (News - Alert) stated, “Demand for mobile data has been soaring over the past few years. As such, unlimited data plans were seldom removed from the product offerings of many mobile operators, while at the same time tiered-pricing plans entered the market. This has created some uncertainty among subscribers.”

ABI Research provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity in addition to analysis on other emerging technologies. With offices across North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s global team of experts has provided forecasts and advised thousands of decision makers through a series of 30+ research and advisory services.

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