The Nokia-Microsoft partnership and carrier involvement
If there’s one thing that Nokia has always played a big role in, it’s promoting the practice of buying unsubsidized devices and paying lower (sometimes much lower) monthly prices to your mobile carrier. In the United States (where I’m based) this practice is practically non-existent not just because it’s not a widely publicised avenue of mobile purchase and usage, but because the nigh-evil carriers here don’t offer lowered pricing plans even when you bring your own device. This practice is apparently spreading into developed and developing countries with increasing prevalence, giving carriers even more power in terms of which devices operate on their networks. This leaves newcomers at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the incumbents or more powerful competitors in the space.
We’ve all heard reports of certain Nokia devices being pulled from potential shelves at the whims of the carriers, or certain tethering applications being torn from application marketplaces, carrier representatives actively pushing customers away from devices running a specific OS, even when customers specifically ask for and justify their purchasing desires and much more. The obvious takeaway is that mobile operators no longer operate as utilities, offering the best packages, services and value for money in attempts to differentiate. No, mobile operators are the gate-keepers to the castle and us consumers are the treasure that the manufacturers wish to access. The thing is, the operators can do nothing without the manufacturers and vice versa but the operators have been taking a decidedly heavier hand to matters in recent years.
If a device offers a feature that competes with the operators in any reasonable way, it is scrapped or hampered, if the device gives users the opportunity to remove or work around the crappy software operators try to bundle like GPS navigation etc. (I say crappy because the implementation is invariably terrible) that ability is hindered. If users wish to download applications from a source that operators don’t get a cut from, the situation becomes rather similar for consumers this is terrible, in essence there’s only one body or group that decides what you use, how you use it & when you use it rather than consumer choice. It’s madness I tell you. Nokia have had a tendency in the past to more or less flip-off the operators and giving the users the choice as to whether they used a certain feature or not. Symbian to an extent with it’s side-loading prowess and developer community and Maemo with the (encouraged!) hacking prowess of it’s fans are definitely notable examples of just such a tendency. Recent trends however have served to stymie that practice. More and more phones, especially in developed countries are beginning to be sold subsidized by operators and the operators are growing increasingly powerful in determining whether a device is successful or not.
Google and operators both in the US, Europe and increasingly in other large smartphone markets have really bedded in with one another especially with the previously weaker OEM’s more willing to make functionality concessions at the behest of operators. The end result is a shafted Nokia with few competitive products and no OEM’s to support them. Worse still, even when they do get decent products out of the gate, who’s to say that operators will even provide their support with decent pricing, tariffs and or marketing support.
One key takeaway from the partnership with Microsoft and a point reiterated time and again by Elop, Ballmer and a number of other members of the Windows Phone “consortium” is that they’re in very close contact with operators who are all having a big say in what flies and what doesn’t. While that may be good for Nokia’s bottom line, I hold a general mistrust and disdain for the way mobile operators handle business and I can’t imagine their interference being much good for us end users.
In any case I’ll be keeping a very close eye on the renewed relationship between Nokia and the mobile operators as Nokia transition to their new path. What do you think, does Nokia’s increasingly good relations with carriers bode well for us end-users?
Category: Nokia
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Operators = Evil. Though I do understand they don’t want to become “dumb pipes”, I’d say an antitrust inspection would be nice in US…
I tried not to mention US operators for the simple reason that I distrust and loathe them. I cannot stand the situation here for the life of me and I really think that there are some murky going-ons in the US market, very murky.
Doesn’t help that competition in that market is also non-existent.
Competition and mobile carriers in the US are at completely opposite ends of the spectrum here. I’m disgusted by AT&T (my carrier), disgusted by Verizon, disgusted by T-Mobile, disgusted by Sprint. And I will be disgusted at the US if the government allows AT&T to buy T-Mobile.
I bought an N8 to use on AT&T so that I could use an unlimited data plan for 10 a month, instead of their overpriced data plans. For this I am very glad the option still exists. The only reason they can’t charge me more is because they don’t “know” I’m using a smartphone – and for that reason I always cheer for my favorite phones to not be subsidized (i.e. Xperia arc, the N9, etc). When AT&T gets a hold of phones, they trash it and then price things so that they’re untouchable because the service is a ripoff.
Great article Andre!
We’re lucky in the UK that operators such as Three, T-Mobile and Orange (and others) do offer excellent sim-only packages. I run the 18/24 month contract numbers each time I’m looking to buy a new phone and it usually comes out preferable to buy a sim-free phone and take a sim-only plan.
I’ve not signed a contract for a phone since I moved to the US in 2007. It’s been grandfathered in and is a damn sight cheaper per year than anything available now.
I’m just pissed, very pissed that there are no sim-only reduced price plans here anymore! -_-
T-Mobile USA still does (called “Even More Plus” — until the sale to ATT closes anyway), though they don’t advertise that fact, anymore.
Why is nobody insulting him by saying he is a WP7 fanboy?
or something to that effect?
Nokia sucks btw, i have to say it because im a loser.
You amuse me
Andre, are you proud of yourself, that ugly trolling Cod3rror is your fan now
ha ha
Another thing that worries me are the dataplans of US carriers. You have to pay tens of dollars a month for a petty few gigs of data and you can’t even use your quota the way you want – if you want to tether your connection to your computer etc, you have to have another plan bought for tethering /___\
I live in Finland and the same thing is starting to happen here – no more limitless data and crazy-ass prices. Fortunately there’s atleast one operator (Saunalahti) which offers very reasonably prices sim-only packages and limitless data for your data plan.
Now, I understand that there are a great amount of mobile devices that use mobile data and the networks are crowded, but I think the operators are taking the wrong way; they should not restrict the data you can transfer, they should improve their network and stay up with the demand. I’d rather take a 1 mbps data plan with unlimited data than some super-fast 4G data plan with 1 GB of data. What’s the use of high speed, if you run out of fuel in an hour?
You speak to a man’s heart
I fully concur with the above.
So true- it’s really pathetic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/technology/23neutral.html?_r=2&ref=business
don’t you people have prepaid connections ?
Generally not with smartphones.
The prepaid options are pretty limited in the US, at least for a “bring your own phone” customer.
To me the prepaid model only makes sense with GSM so you can swap carriers, or SIM between phones, at will. So that eliminates two of the 4 major US carriers. Of the 2 GSM carriers, T-mobile will probably be acquired by AT&T, leaving only one option.
I’m currently an AT&T gophone (prepaid) user. Data costs $25 for 500MB (lasts a month but rolls over if renewed). That much data is livable (but not great) on a symbian phone with wifi coverage at home and work. If you’re not prepared to take a contract, that’s about as good as it gets.
Apparently they have a new contract-free plan which looks somewhat acceptable at $50/month unlimited talk/text/web (extra for “smartphones” but symbian is invisible to them on that front):
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=20109&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=32055&mapcode=mk-att-gophone
Regarding the rest of the article, I wonder how true Tomi Ahonen’s theory is, about Micropsoft’s Skype purchase affecting carrier relationships.
$25 for
500MB? That is too much. Here in india you get 2gb at 1-3mbps for about $14 for 3g subscribers and 3gb at 50-200kbps for about $2 for 2g subscribers
On AT&T, you can get unlimited data for “dumbphones” for 10 bucks a month. I’m paying 10 a month for no capped internet on my N8 and loving it. Don’t get ripped off by the evil empire of AT&T!
My man, I’m definitely in the same boat as you
Microsoft has stated that it wants Windows Phone to be very carrier friendly. It currently doesn’t have a tethering option and it will probably make a tethering solution that will make the carriers be able to control what we do with the device.
I don’t know if there will be any “direct to consumer” Nokia branded Windows Phones for the US market because if they want to be picked up AT&T, they will want exclusivity. Unlocking might also be a problem initially but perhaps Nokia will surprise all and make a phone what works on all GSM networks and with all CDMA networks in one device. That would truly be a world phone.
well, how about skype in between?