C-Spire, a US service provider, launched its data rolling plans that allow its subscribers to roll over their unused 4G LTE data quota to the next month. The new 4G LTE plans are offered at three price points - $40 for 2GB of data, $55 for 4GB of data and $65 for 6GB of data. All three plans come with unlimited talk and text and are also offered on devices used for tethering and those used as personal mobile hotspots. In future, C-Spire will also allow tablets to be added to these plans on a sharing basis for an access fee of $10.
According to C-Spire, these plans come with an automatic notification feature that notifies the user when his/her data balance reaches 20%, saving subscribers from overages that can easily occur as data users continue to use their mobile data services without knowing how much data they have consumed. As the balance reaches 20%, C-Spire will offer subscribers top-up passes ranging from 500MB for $10 and 3GB for $45, creating contextual offers that can help operators' upsell their data.
C-Spire said in its statement that based on findings by Nielsan, a research company, US mobile consumers on average use about 800 MB data a month, but are paying for plans with 5 to 10 times as much data. These figures do reflect the trends in developed markets where the data quotas are bigger, and where the use of Wi-Fi combined with concerns of bill shocks often leads to data subscribers under-utilizing their monthly quotas. The ability to roll over the quota will therefore create a strong value proposition in these markets and will in turn spur a higher take up on larger data bundles, especially across households that go for extended shared plans that offer bundling of up to 10 devices.
Jim Richmond, Vice President of Corporate Communications for C Spire
Rolling data is about getting to keep the data you don’t use and carrying it over to the next month without worrying about how much data you will need. Very few consumers instinctively know how to quickly and accurately calculate their data usage on mobile devices.
