Syntonic, a mobile platform services provider, announced that an updated version of its sponsored data application, Freeway which is already available to AT&T customers in the United States, will be made available in this quarter in Southeast Asia. The latest version also brings native application support for the service.
According to Syntonic, the market expansion will provide leading mobile operators the opportunity to offer subscribers in the region free mobile access to the highly popular gaming app, Clash of Clans and an inaugural list of popular messaging and social media applications including WhatsApp, BBM, WeChat, and Twitter. This catalogue of sponsored data offers will only be available in the region.
While operators in the United States have jumped on the sponsored data services bandwagon on their contractual plans – AT&T Data Perks, Verizon FreeBee Data, and T-‐Mobile Binge On™ – in other regions, a compelling market opportunity for sponsored data resides in prepaid markets, where mobile data traffic is forecast to increase 14 times from 2015 to 2021 and with data costs comprising 2‐6% of median household income, said Syntonic.
