The UK mobile carrier Three is making some waves in the ad industry this week. They have announced that on June 13th, they will be conducting a trial that will block 100% of all advertisements to mobile devices on their network. The company has over 9 million customers, and they all have the option to opt in to this trial.
The company is working with Israel-based company, Shine, which specializes in ad blocking services. This network level ad blocking is a major cause for concern for some people. After all, if major mobile networks could simply block all ads and offer it to their customers as a service, it could dramatically restrict the money flow for online marketers.
On a brighter note, however, this type of trial will also gather some useful information that may may allow for better ad-fraud fighting at the carrier level in the future.
The chief marketing officer of Three, Tom Malleschitz said, “This is the next step in our journey to make mobile ads better for our customers. The current ad model is broken. It frustrates customers, eats up their data allowance and can jeopardize their privacy. Something needs to change.”
They had also mentioned in the past that somewhere between 20 and 40% of the average mobile user’s data plan is consumed by advertisements. This is growing mainly because of the fact that so many mobile ads are now full video, which automatically start playing on services like Facebook.
Three believes that the costs of this data should be assumed by the advertisers, not the consumers. Having their network block all ads will effectively show the ad networks that mobile carriers really do ‘hold all the chips’ in this game.
If advertisers and ad networks don’t come to the table to discuss options that will be fair for the mobile customers, carriers like Three may take things into their own hands in the future.
While this is just a trial move, it is certainly something that will impact the industry quite significantly. If things go as planned, all the customers who sign up for this trial will get a taste of what ad-free mobile devices can be like and they might push for the option to keep it.
