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I don't know anyone in my area who doesn't swear at our sleazy operators. Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 seem to have created a cartel, which may not be far from the truth given similar offers that can hardly be described as competitive.

The contract between the company Telefónica and the publishing house Ringier Axel Springer CZ gives hope that something can change in the Czech telecommunications market. On October 30, 2012, the first GSM virtual mobile operator was established in the Czech Republic, it will offer its services under the BLESKmobil brand. Call price is 2,50 CZK/minute. One virtual operator does not make a price revolution, but there are several dozen in neighboring Germany.

Many of us still hope for a fourth operator to enter the Czech market, especially since it will be Petr Kellner's PPF group, which is currently attacking the banking market with Air Bank.

If something like this really happens, it will definitely not be this year, and until then we can only sizzle, look at gray operators or get angry about monthly invoices while thinking about amazing offers abroad, where even our brothers have conditions that our countrymen can only envy . The Czech Republic is a specific market – a favorite excuse of Czech operators. Yes, it is specific, but not in its essence, but rather the fault of the operator troika, who are trying to extract what they can from the Czechs.

Operators, whether Czech or foreign, are not much different from recording or film companies. They were used to a certain standard and high incomes, but times have changed and they are far from wanting to change. For them, the change means significantly less turnover and therefore less power. Operators are now kicking like roosters because they are in danger of becoming ordinary data providers and no one will be interested in all those premium services in which so much money is hidden for them.

If he was the killer of the order of the day in the music business Napster and its ilk, in the mobile world they are smartphones. The biggest influence here was the iPhone, which made smartphones mainstream, as well as the mobile internet. Operators liked dumb phones. They could easily customize them, brand them and put their crapware on them while selling users services like MMS, WAP and more. But with smartphones led by the iPhone, those days disappeared as quickly as rolls for a crown.

SMS and MMS are a thing of the past

MMS was not Multimedia Messaging Service seemed to be a great cash cow to begin with. Cameras started appearing in phones, and pretty much the only way you could share photos from your phone was through "ememes". However, the mobile internet became the grave of MMS. Thanks to it, users started using e-mail instead of an expensive premium service, where an e-mail client is the basis of every modern smartphone.

It was the iPhone that made e-mail a kind of alternative to well-established mobile services for sending content. E-mail used to be something that the average person checked once a day in the evening when he got home, or served as a tool for work communication within companies and companies. Suddenly, people had a quality email client in their pocket. They can read messages on the go the moment they arrive, just like SMS. And what is the most common multimedia content of e-mails? Yes, pictures. So why would anyone send an MMS for 15 crowns when they can send the same picture by e-mail as part of their data plan?

The good old "messages" also meet a similar fate. Smartphones have one big disadvantage for operators – they can be installed with smart applications. Applications like Whatsappskype, IM + or Viber. Applications that send messages thanks to the mobile Internet. Then there are services like iMessage, where the user does not even have to think about whether to send messages through the installed or native application. If the other party has an iPhone, the SMS will automatically not cost you a penny.

SMS messages have been a great billion-dollar business for operators. However, those times are over and interest is dwindling. Vodafone was the first to understand this, which is in its latest "fair" tariffs he offered unlimited and even tried to turn it into a marketing ploy. But the educated reader knows that it is only a virtue out of necessity. SMS just isn't nearly as good a business as it used to be, and offering them on a flat rate basis will at least ensure some steady income.

Mobile internet and calls do not go together

If there's one thing that irritates smartphone users, it's the ridiculous data plans capped by the much-unpopular FUP. At the same time, their prices do not match the amount of data transferred. However, the problem is not that the operators do not know that their customers want more data for better money. The problem is, on the contrary, they know it very well. If you want unlimited data, you're pretty much out of luck, 5GB of data is usually the maximum your operator is willing to give you. And there's a reason for that.

With unlimited data, smartphones would start to attack the most profitable service of operators, which is phone calls. And the extension of third-generation and higher networks ordered by the Czech Telecommunications Authority is not playing their part either. As soon as users are not afraid to use data in order not to exceed the FUP, we will see a boom in VoIP communication. Skype, Viber, FaceTime and other applications will be used more and more and not only will the pressure on transmitters increase, but also the number of minutes called up on customers' bills will decrease.

It is not in vain that AT&T, for example, is trying in the US block FaceTime over 3G/LTE. He knows very well that he will lose a lot of money in this way, and by enabling this protocol through premium data tariffs, he is at least trying to compensate for the losses. Fortunately, regulation works much better in the US than in the Czech Banana Republic, and AT&T will eventually have to allow FaceTime on mobile internet for everyone, just like other smaller US carriers.

[do action=”citation”]Do you want to bypass us via the Internet? So pay well![/do]

However, even in the Czech Republic, operators compensate where possible, and the result is precisely expensive data tariffs with a high FUP. Do you want to bypass us via the Internet? Pay well! Fair User Policy, no matter how ironic the meaning of the words in the FUP acronym is, it serves in two ways - limiting ordinary users from frequent use of the mobile Internet and compensation for those users who do not want to limit themselves. It will be difficult for ČTÚ to talk to the operators in FUP, quite possibly not even able, so the only hope is greater pressure from customers, or the arrival of a fourth operator who will not be burdened by the "golden times" of the past.

Ridiculous phone subsidies

If you have been following the development of smartphone prices in recent years, you will at least cry. While the iPhone 3G could be bought for a pittance with the highest tariff, today the operator gives you a discount of not even CZK 10 from a phone that costs twice as much. While abroad, people don't buy many phones at full price and are used to generous subsidies from operators in exchange for a two-year contract, and many more people can afford an iPhone, for example.
For example, if we compare the offer of German and Czech T-Mobile, we get interesting numbers. You can buy a 16 GB iPhone 5 in the Czech Republic at the cheapest price with a two-year contract for 9 CZK and a spend of 099 CZK, in Germany for 2 euro (300 CZK) with a spend of 1 CZK. With us, we can be happy for a discount of several thousand, for which the operator also wants a two-year commitment (now even Vodafone, which once prided itself on only six-month commitments).

Low subsidy prices are just another compensation for operators for devices that reduce their profits. But the Czech nature is also an important factor. Unfortunately, we are a nation that lets itself be chopped. Despite the exorbitant prices of phones, the person who really wants one will eventually buy a new iPhone. Even if for that he had to eat meatless sausages, cheese substitutes and other cheap junk that discount chains tempt us with for a year. Until we change, the operators probably won't either.

The situation abroad

Do you think things are better off everywhere across the border? Far from it, after all America is a great example of greedy operators. In addition to the already mentioned situation with FaceTime, there is, for example, "throttling", which in a way is a FUP, but also for users with an unlimited data plan. However, the operator there decided to cut off the biggest downloaders and about 5% of all users permanently reduced the speed to GPRS level because they were simply consuming a lot of data while paying for unlimited tariff. Fortunately, the regulatory authority intervened here.

Another case regarding unlimited tariffs - users who already have such a tariff will not have access to a fast LTE connection. In order to use the fast networks of the fourth generation, they have to choose a new tariff, where, of course, unlimited is no longer available. A great example is tethering, for which users have to pay an extra fee. Want to share mobile data to your computer or tablet? So pay extra! However, similar practices can also be seen in Europe, for example in Great Britain. Fortunately, our operators did not dare to do something like that. O2 at least blocked the ability to use tethering at all for quite a long time. Even Internet sharing on the 3rd and 4th generation iPad is not possible with all operators.

The last thing I'll mention is the popular carrier phone locks to discourage customers from switching to a competitor if they want to keep using their phone. Fortunately, phone blocking is prohibited by the telecommunications authority here.

What will happen to the operators?

Whether the operators like it or not, they will eventually become just mobile service providers and phone sellers. Text messages and ultimately voice services will be marginal products as the source of everything will be the Internet. This is exactly what the operators fear the most, and they prevent it in every possible way, be it by restricting the mobile Internet or third-party services.

But it's not just the net neutrality initiative that will eventually force them to conform, just as record companies have had to. It is the Internet that has brought the music industry to its knees, and which is extremely troubling for the film industry and operators. The Internet is synonymous with freedom, which corporations do not like to see and try to limit it in every possible way, whether it is through bills PIPA, SOPA, ACTA or legal attacks on Internet repositories.

But before we free ourselves from the power of the operators, we will have to endure a lot. However, if it has to be, let's do it with our heads held high and not down, as we have been used to for decades. We don't have to immediately go to the streets to demonstrate for better tariffs, but if we always just wave our hands at the inventions of operators, we certainly won't speed up the transition to a better mobile tomorrow.

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