In these cases, there’s little in the way of ‘premium’ support. Instead you see increasing reliance on web tools to resolve issues (selfcare). These deliver lower cost-per-head support than telephony. It’s actually increasly difficult to find a phone number on an ISPs website.

The ISPs are also competing against low-cost rivals who bundle free broadband as part of their package. OK, market shares across the ‘ISP establishment’ have dropped, but not enough to force changes such as premium paid-for support. Instead the ISPs have focused on QoS and, importantly, looked to concentrate on what they do best – the provision of a ‘utility’ service.

Long gone are the days of the ISP trying to control our multimedia world and looking to position themselves as content companies (sound familiar?) These ventures were expensive, and hit bottom lines like a sledge-hammer.

I could get my Internet connection for half the price but I don’t. And that’s not because my ISP crowds my universe with value-add; it’s because they are very good at doing what they say they’ll do. Deliver a consistently high connection speed. And I’m happy with that. Is there a lesson here?

Is probably more the point – when involved in flat rate tariffs and business models with Apple App Stores, Ovi and other solutions eating into or wiping out additional revenue opportunities with the subscriber.

Are subscribers – ready for the bill shock when they realise that the 5 hours spend on the phone to the customer care units in low cost environments off shore just cost them $250 …

If carriers are forced into seeing ARPU decline as a result of lower, unlimited tariffs, then margins are going to have to improve to maintain the EBITDA that the shareholders expect.

If you consider the cost of ‘owning’ a subscriber in the network, there are two key areas of significant cost; a) Subscriber Acquisition (the cost of the handset subsidy, advertising, retail environment etc) and b) Support.

I’ve mentioned this before, but dial up customer care and talk to a tier 3 tech-support and your profitability as a subscriber is wiped for a month.

Do carriers have the mettle to introduce paid-for support? That’s another question.

All you can eat data tariffs imply that they will be sold with smartphone or USB dongles – all of what have high post sales support costs. This will erode an already low margin for the service providers.

Premium rate support must be just around the corner for the customers, isn’t it?

Belief in religions requires faith, which necessarily entails a departure from rationality. It is widely presumed, especially among journalists or the “media folks” that this departure for Apple is either desirable or acceptable.

You might say that “Secular mobile operators” question that presumption, on the basis that they need to make profit.

Strand Consult asserts that the validity of any position must in some way be tested on the basis of reason and observation. Due to their lack of supporting evidence, and due to numerous pieces of information contradicting the financial benefits of iPhone to MNOs, and with known facts, we should probably accept that the “Apple religion” is negatively affecting MNO profitability.

The flipside is that it could be providing big benefits to the other operators by educating consumers, driving better devices out of Nokia et. al and demonstrating that the “open model” is not so bad after all….