iPhone with contract has became the primary data flow and customer contributor. However, with the boosting, dispute on it’s cost also increased.
Recently, Ms. Si account China Unicom because of its no remind of exceed on data flow. Under the intermediation from China MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), China Unicom agree to pay for half of the charge. But customers can not agree with this solution.
Ms. Si bought a iPhone 4 with a $43/Month contract from CHina Unicom on April 8. This contract contains a 1.1GB data flow fee. On April 18, China Unicom suspend her number with no notice. Ms. Si know lately the reason from China Unicom that she has a $108 cost in arrears. China Unicom explained that they have no responsibility to remind customers their exceeding on data flow.
In fact, many iPhone user have encountered this situation. Because of lack of attention on data flow, they have spend high communication fee.
In oder to reduce customers’ cost, China Unicom had adopted some strategies. For example, they employed a max 15GB limit of data flow. If any customers exceed this limit, his/her data conection will be closed until the next month. However, these strategies do not suit for iPhone user.
The iPhone with contract brings many new users to China Unicom. This makes its competetor China Mobile feel some stress. What’s more, these iPhone users bring more ARPU. ARPU from iPhone users’ is about twice compared to normal 3G users.
The quick increase has put bog challenge on China Unicom’s services. In the future, good service will be a key point for users to choose a telecom provider. How to improve its services should be a strategically goal for China Unicom.