Telstra To Cut Mobile Internet Abusers
1.6 million iPhone and Blackberry users will be affected by Telstra’s mobile internet cut if they over spend. The announcement comes as Telstra loses millions with customers overspending and refusing to pay the bills.
An “app cap” will be applied and internet access will be barred from users of smartphones until the next cycle. Telstra is expected to have the cap implemented by the end of this financial year.
Telstra’s chief financial officer, John Stanhope, says the “app cap” will minimise the shock customers experience when they receive a large and unexpected bill.
“It [app cap] stops the charge, but it also stops the service,” Stanhope says.
Frequent users of mobile internet are likely to be inconvenienced by the barring, however, businesses with internet advertising will be hit hardest by the “app caps”.
Telstra has advised the “app cap” is not expected to affect basic SMS services. SMS has already proved to be a reliable and cost effective way of interacting with customers. Customers now have greater incentive to keep a cap on bills by using SMS rather than mobile internet.
Traditional and digital advertisers are now turning to SMS mobile marketing to retain and increase numbers. The mobile marketing company TXT2GET has been offering advertisers mobile keywords as an alternative method of marketing to improve company and customer interaction.
“By using SMS keywords in advertising a marketer can double or triple responses to advertising. It also helps them measure what’s WORKING and what’s not,” says TXT2GET’s Australian Country Manager Andrew Campbell, “Sydney’s talkback radio station 2UE was able to increase audience interaction by using SMS. They asked listeners to enter a competition by texting 2UE to 19 33 33. By the end of their 7-day campaign, over 1000 entries were received, more than double the usual response.”
With Telstra’s internet barring, filling an entry form online or even accessing a website on a smartphone will not always be possible. But the unaltered SMS service will mean Telstra’s 1.6 million smartphone users will still be able to enter competitions, receive mobile coupons, and access giveaway campaigns using TXT2GET keywords.
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