MPT backtracks on mobile internet fees, for now

The fee structure for mobile phone internet connections will remain in place until the end of December after a backlash against the proposed changes from users, a government said last week.

U Thein Oo, general manager of Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), said the
proposed changes to the fee structure, which had been due to start on December 1, would be pushed back to January and recalculated.

“After holding a press conference [on November 30], we had to report back to our management,” he said.

“We will recalculate prices during this month, so the changes will not arrive until next month,” he said.

U Htay Win, chief engineer of MPT’s Mobile Department, said: “The previous announcement has been cancelled.”

MPT had previously announced that a new, three-tiered pricing structure for mobile-based internet usage, replacing the existing scheme that charges users by the minute at either K2 for GSM connections or K4 for WCDMA and CDMA lines.

Mobile-based internet connections have proven highly popular with users – an MPT official said 96 percent of the country’s 600,000 internet connections are made via mobile phones.

Ko Kyaw Kyaw, a 28-year-old IT officer, said: “I’m so glad to hear this news because if MPT uses a volume-based fee system, it is going to be more expensive. But we will have to wait and see what pricing system MPT chooses to use in future,” he said.

Under the proposed changes users would have been charged for the amount of bandwidth they used, with additional monthly fee as well as penalties for using more than their allowed bandwidth. Users on Plan A would be charged K2 for every 100KB of bandwidth they use; Plan B users would be limited to 200MB of data for the month, with each 100KB of data used costing K2 and a K1500 monthly fee; and Plan C subscribers would be able to use 1GB of data for K7000 a month, with each 100KB of data costing K2.

Consumers that choose either the second or third plan can register for the service at MPT’s Pansodan Road office, its Ahlone office, Shwe Gon Daing Mobile Exchange Office or the regional head office outside of Yangon. Users who failed to contact MPT would be automatically put onto Plan A.

However, users said they expected costs to increase significantly as a result of the proposed changes. Some had even requested permission from the Yangon Region Police Force to protest against the new fee structure.

U Win Kyaw, a 30-year-old a telecommunication journalist, said if connection speeds were faster the new fee structure would make more sense.

“The mobile internet fee is based on the number of minutes you use but the newly announced system is based on data usage, which is the same as other countries,” he said. “But it’s going to result in much higher bills for most users.”

source: The Myanmar Times
http://mmtimes.com/index.php/business/3459-mpt-backtracks-on-mobile-internet-fees-for-now.html