Direct Save Telecom: No broadband price hikes for us

A lot of mobile networks are facing pressures amid recent reports of mobile’s projected growth. Cisco reported that the number of mobile devices will outnumber humans by 2016 at the current rate that it’s growing. During this mobile boom, networks will be expected to carry 130 exabytes of data each year. To give you an idea of the sheer magnitude, that’s equivalent to the amount of data that can be stored in 33 billion DVDs.

In light of these recent reports, industry analysts say that this impending rise in mobile data usage might spell the end for unlimited broadband deals.

In reaction to these possible price hikes, Stavros Tsolakis, who is the CEO of Direct Save Telecom, has assured its customers that the independent telecoms provider, will not be increasing their prices. “In the space of ten years, the average household’s monthly data requirements has increased dramatically and with the new products coming out on the market this is set to increase even more.”

Tsolakis continued: “At Direct Save Telecom over the last few years we have seen typical data usage increase from between 1.5 to 5Gb per month for the vast majority of our customers, to more recently 3.5 to 11Gb per month. If Netflix, and others, get a fraction of the success in the UK, that they enjoyed in the US, data consumption is about to go through the roof. So broadband providers might well see this as an opportunity to cash in, either by increasing prices or by reducing their data caps.”

Broadband expert, Richard Patterson, a Director at Broadband Expert, stated that he believes the introduction of Netflix will put even more pressure on UK’s broadband system. “With Netflix accounting for around 28% of bandwidth use in the US if the service is anything like as popular in the UK it will, undoubtedly, put extra pressure on an already stretched infrastructure. With the UK having a greater amount of competition between providers it is unlikely that many ISPs will raise prices, however there is a real danger that there will be an increases in ISPs throttling speeds on unlimited broadband packages (slowing the speed of the customer’s connection to reduce data usage), for those customers with the heaviest data consumption.”

Patterson added: “With Netflix accounting for around 28% of bandwidth use in the US if the service is anything like as popular in the UK it will, undoubtedly, put extra pressure on an already stretched infrastructure. With the UK having a greater amount of competition between providers it is unlikely that many ISPs will raise prices, however there is a real danger that there will be an increases in ISPs throttling speeds on unlimited broadband packages (slowing the speed of the customer’s connection to reduce data usage), for those customers with the heaviest data consumption.”