In a cross-country comparison of mobile data pricing, ABI Research found The United Kingdom, France and Indonesia to have among the lowest prices for mobile broadband plans. In Indonesia, a 4 GB data package for the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) costs as low as $17 monthly. Indonesia and other such developing countries are driving mobile Internet usage through the use of low-cost prepaid mobile broadband and Internet plans, driven by the popularity of BlackBerry and other such smart phones.

Mobile network operators in developed markets, on the other hand, are struggling to cope with the demand that exponential data usage increases have placed on their networks.

“AT&T's adoption of tiered data pricing is already seen in many European markets, and will signal the end of ‘unlimited’ data bundles,” says ABI Research analyst Bhavya Khanna.

Other countries including Italy and the Philippines have experimented with pricing according to time rather than data consumption, allowing users a fixed number of hours of connectivity every month. Since data usage will continue to grow, operators will need to introduce innovative data pricing and manage their bandwidth in order to deliver an enjoyable user experience.

ABI Research’s “Mobile Data Pricing Database” tracks mobile data pricing for both handset use and USB modems across 27 countries worldwide. The database includes information about data pricing plans by carrier, as well as a cross country comparison of the lowest cost plan for downloading 3 GB of data.