MTS launches single Internet service for home and on the go

Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. launched a new plan Tuesday that integrates home Internet and wireless data service in one package, which analysts agreed is an indication of the ongoing trend toward Internet connectivity becoming telecoms’ core product. The plan, called Total Internet, offers unlimited home Internet service at 10 Mbps and wireless service, its website outlines. Plans start from $60 for one person to $160 for five smartphones, though customers can upgrade the speed for an extra monthly fee. The service also includes access to MTS’ hotspots, a press release noted. The home Internet plan is unlimited and the wireless plan has no fees for going over data caps, though MTS will begin throttling the connections of wireless customers after 15 GB of usage within Manitoba and after 2 GB outside of Manitoba, clarified Paul Norris, MTS’ vice-president of brand and consumer marketing. “We believe this is a game-changer. This is the first offering of its kind that we’ve ever seen, really pushing together that home-based Internet experience and the wireless Internet experience,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re not aware of anyone else that has done an offering like this. … Certainly in Canada, we haven’t seen it.” He said the company expects many existing customers to adopt the new plan, “and we’re very much expecting and hoping and knowing that we’re going to get some new customers out of it.” The new plans are likely to appeal to younger families and households of more than one person with multiple devices, he said. Norris said that for customers, both wireline and wireless Internet access is becoming more important. “Their applications, their personal content, the information that they’re looking for on the web; it’s just become such an important part of everyday life," he said "We saw a real opportunity to simplify the process for our customer, and to no longer force customers to buy separate products for home and on the go.” Norris said the company decided to make the voice and text services optional because “we designed this from a customer perspective. So we really felt strongly about customers being able to pick and choose.” Troy Crandall, a telecom analyst with 3Macs, said in a phone interview that telecommunications companies in Canada, up until now, have not offered data-only wireless plans for phones, though they have for tablets, and people have figured out how to access such plans with smartphones. “As far as Bell or Telus or any of those would know, they think your iPhone is actually a tablet, just using wireless data on their network. So can it be done? Yes. But does Bell or Telus promote it as that? No way, because they want you to take the voice plan as well.” Crandall noted that MTS has a new CEO, Jay Forbes, who joined the company at the beginning of the year. “So he’s trying something different, and actually, that’s pretty refreshing. So is it going to work for them? I don’t know. Who knows? But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.” He said if the plan is successful and MTS starts drawing customers away from the competition, “then you can probably expect to see its competitors copying it pretty quickly, too, at least within the Manitoba market.” Crandall said there is likely a desire in the market for such a plan. He noted that there are now phone apps and services, such as from Fongo Inc., that can substitute for traditional voice service. “For some people, this might be perfect,” he said. Crandall agreed the move is an indication of a trend in the telecom industry toward Internet connectivity becoming the most important product for the companies, as online alternatives to TV and apps that offer texting and voice services proliferate. “We’re moving towards that trend,” he said. “Would this expedite that transition? I might say yes.” He added that a 15 GB allotment before throttling functions as a “soft cap” on data, but “to offer unlimited Internet and essentially two or three times the biggest bucket plans on the market already, there is the potential that it could weigh down your network,” depending on how many people start using that much data. “My gut is that if everyone was to use their 15 GB in a month, which is kind of unlikely for most people … you could get some network congestion, I think,” he said, adding that could also occur if MTS draws a significant number of new subscribers. MTS’s Norris said the company is able to offer a 15 GB data allotment because of “how expansive our network is here in the province of Manitoba. And really, when you think about it, customers use their devices very often in their own home, so the devices themselves, the smartphones, for lack of a better word, offload onto the home network.” SeaBoard Group analyst Iain Grant in an email that the service is “innovative,” with the combination of fixed and mobile Internet providing "a clever differentiator since few others can match that offer within MTS’ territory.” He also agreed the new plan supports the trend toward Internet connectivity becoming telecoms’ most important service. “In the future, ‘data’ will be the service,” he said, where texts migrate to messaging apps and voice and video run over the Internet. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

MTS launches single Internet service for home and on the go

News | June 23, 2015

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MTS launches single Internet service for home and on the go

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