Traffic Grows 25x, Mobile Revenue 2X

Since 2008, global carrier mobile revenues have increased two times while traffic increased 25 times, some would argue. If so, something will have to change. Mobile service providers will have to increase prices to end users, develop other revenue streams from business partners, offload traffic and further optimize their cost structures. In all likelihood, they will undertake "all of the above."

The big issue likely will be how to go about matching consumption to pricing. For many consumers, simplicity and predictability are key. For those customers, flat fees for unlimited usage represent the greatest amount of simplicity. It is not so clear those sorts of plans will be inexpensive, going forward.

And while "buckets" of usage have proven popular for voice services, it is much harder for end users to understand and track data usage, simply because different applications have such wildly-different bandwidth implications. Still, given enough access to consumption information, many users could prove receptive to usage plans that are based on the types of apps they want to use.

Pricing plans for texting, email and web surfing, without support for video, might prove attractive. Mid-range plans that allow some video will be desirable for other users. Finally, some plans that allow extensive use of video might be most valuable for a fourth bucket of users.

Takeaways from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - Seeking Alpha