Android One followed the launch at the end of August by Mozilla, the non-profit behind the Firefox browser, of its own cheaper smart phones for the Indian mobile market. By making smartphones more affordable, Google and Mozilla hope to take the lead in connecting the estimated five billion people worldwide – primarily from emerging markets – who still have yet to join the developed world online.

Consider as well the manner in which mobile users in emerging markets usually purchase their mobile plans and data packages. It’s a multi-step, time-consuming process that involves either a physical trek to a retailer to top up a data plan, or the dreaded and unreliable multi-sequence USSD call-and-response. This often fails in areas of poor data connectivity, driving consumers to abandon the entire process in frustration.

Consumers, when presented with sponsored data in increments they understand – say, an hour of a popular social media site or a day of full access to the mobile web – are quick to respond. Our work with sponsored data in developing markets over the past two years shows that offers such as these need to be simple to access.

There are the mobile operators themselves. They know that they often lack the capabilities to deliver sponsored data in a cost-effective manner, and further recognise that vague and confusing bundles of megabytes simply don’t work for all consumers, particularly those who are coming to the internet for the very first time. This is where the crucial role of data compression from third parties can make the economics of sponsored data much more viable.

Mobile data becomes infinitely more affordable, understandable and attractive when there’s something to be gained by multiple interested parties. This potential is now beginning to be realised by sponsored data, which mobile operators from Pakistan to Nigeria to Malaysia have begun to embrace as both the business models and technology to support it have fallen into place.

By supporting even these paid offers with invisible-to-the-consumer data compression technology, operators can not only keep data pricing low: but also at the same time utilise the same infrastructure that allows for sponsored data to trial their own innovations in 21st-century premium data packaging.

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