I just got back from London and Informa’s third annual global Broadband Traffic Management (BBTM) conference, and guess what, the buffet is closed! Not the actual buffet at the conference, which in spite today’s state of the global economy, was bigger and tastier than ever – great job Royal Garden Hotel! No, I’m talking about the “all you can eat” broadband offering that used to be standard, that has become rare, and that was predicted dead in the coming year or two.

I love the crowded and intimate exhibition and networking area at BBTM where competitors and partners rub shoulders as they work hard to convince operator representatives about the uniqueness of their products. What I love even more, is when there’s an opportunity to debate hot topics with an audience.

So, I was full of expectation as I walked over to the Kensington Suite fifteen minutes ahead of the session to grab a seat at the podium. Soon I was joined by my fellow panelists from Mu (operator in UAE), Belgacom, Sandvine, Allot and Tekelec; and last but not least, our moderator for the day, Steven Hartley from Ovum.

The topic for the day was “Can Operators Manage the Transition Away From Unlimited Plans While Keeping Customers Happy?”, and the unanimous verdict was that unlimited “all you can eat” broadband offerings are doomed due to the disconnect between the income and the cost of producing them. But what will come in its place, and what are things to consider as operators head in this direction? Let me summarize my favorite parts of the panel discussion for those of you who didn’t have the opportunity to attend on-site:

• The key is to package and communicate offers that are understandable. We’ve made bandwidth (speed) and volume (caps) industry standard for service tiers. Both of which are insanely bad – they’re introvert (cost-based), tech terms, and we can’t even guarantee a firm speed but a “best effort up to” number. And they’re not common knowledge since the majority of the population is not a computer engineer and familiar with gigabytes and gigabits – and they don’t understand the difference – which means that we must waste energy educating them. And we, the specialists, can’t even answer the most basic question, “what can I do with 5 Mbps that I can’t do with 2?”
• Instead you should sell value-based offers. The difference in tiers should present a clear value to the customer. By making the benefits understandable and measurable, you manage expectation – and disappointment is always a question of expectation.
• For example, if you use Facebook 90% of the time, you will be a happy customer if you have a perceived good user-experience when using Facebook, i.e. 90% of the time you use the service. And you will not have high expectations for the other 10% since that’s not what you primarily pay for. You might even be happily surprised just by the fact that it works. User experience is not a question of size, or speed in this case, just like restaurants don’t promote the size of the meal on the á la carte menu.
• 3UK, who offer an unlimited data plan, attended the session from row one. I love what 3UK do because it’s extremely easy to understand – unlimited data traffic on your smartphone. As a consumer I find this very appealing. Anyone can understand this. But it’s an example of an “unlimited with restrictions” since it’s tied to one specific device.
• This is also a good example of the constant change operators must embrace. The border between smartphones and computers will disappear, and the smartphone will be as bandwidth consuming as a laptop. By then the package must be redefined. But that’s fine. You will not package the eternal service package anymore since there are variables you can’t control. The “youth package” might push Facebook today, Spotify six months from now, and an application not yet developed in a year.
• This makes the soft values like customer loyalty and a strong brand extremely crucial. You must create an Apple-like experience and relationship with your customers. The customers are probably Apple’s best sales team, and they associated themselves so much with the product that it becomes a lifestyle. In the broadband world this would be a service that the customer perceives as “good for his purposes”, at the right price, and he’ll actively argue for why he picked this service when talking to his friends.
• Another Apple (for Apple) comparison is their ability to sell customers more and more Apple products – iPhone, MacBook, iPad and an AppleTV – that are interconnected. This is how you should sell services to your customers. And it’s also applicable to these specific Apple products since consumers don’t want an individual plan for each of the four, five IP-based devices they carry around. The plan might even extend itself to a group – a family, a company or a soccer team.

Even though we as consumers consider restriction to unlimited as something bad, I think that we all understand that there must be an underlying business rational. The quality of the buffet is rarely as good as the á la carte, or we would eat at the buffet all the time. As we change to accommodate today’s conditions, we might as well adjust so that it becomes understandable – even for laymen – and measurable so it can meet our expectations.

Time for lunch. The buffet is served. Enjoy it while you can!