The definition of “Fair usage” in Wickedpedia (if it doesn’t already exist, please could someone build it now) is; “A bunch of meaningless weasel words designed to screw punters out of their hard-earned cash.” Nobody likes the phrase, it doesn’t do the telecoms businesses any good, and users find it confusing. So it’s good that Vodafone have announced that they’re to get rid of it. The worrying thing is what replaces it.
According to Cellular News (http://www.cellular-news.com/story/43227.php) a Vodafone forum post (http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/57718-mobile-internet-will-the-500mb-allowance-be-enough-for-internet-usage/page__st__160) revealed that “From the beginning of June, monthly bundle customers will pay £5 for every 500MB after the first 500MB, while customers without a monthly bundle will pay 50p for every 10MB after the first 25MB,” and continued “Subscribers will receive notifications if their monthly data usage is approaching the limit applied to their tariff.”
If the figures are correct then the mobile telecoms businesses are going to be as rich as croesus very soon. Gerhard Fettweis, Vodafone chair professor at the Technische Universitat Dresden, has predicted that as many as 100 billion cellular devices will be connected by 2020. 100 Billion times anything is a lot of money…..and 50p-£5 on top of that is just epic amounts.