As the cellular industry braces itself for Vodacom`s 3G launch, content and billing providers say they are still grappling with the complexities of the revenue and billing model.
Vodacom, in partnership with one of its major shareholders, Vodafone, is due to launch its 3G cellular service during the first half of December, although no firm date has been set yet.
The introduction of 3G effectively means that broadband services such as movie clips and video conferencing can be received directly 'to the hand`, while the current GSM service offers only voice and limited data services.
Preliminary indications are that downloading, for example, a movie clip will not come cheaply. Gavin Penkin, ExactMobile`s director for portals and mobile entertainment, says in a best-case scenario, to download a 30-second clip of 2.5MB would cost the consumer R20 plus another R25 to pay for the rights.
"This rate could be too high for the consumer right now. It means that the network operator would have to lower its data charges or include the data fee within the content fee," he says.
Atio Corporation MD Tim Courtney says many 3G operators lose between 3% and 15% of their revenue due to "leakages", caused by fraud, data entry errors and technical problems such as network element configuration issues.
The problems are complex in 3G networks, Courtney says, because typically more parties are involved in every transaction.
"With a simple voice call it`s possible to control the communication very tightly and it`s relatively easy to allocate revenues. Now you have subscribers downloading content from third-party providers, and the revenue has to be fairly split between the provider and the network," he says.
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