Mobile Entertainment

In the beginning there were companies like AOL, with their dial-up access packages and walled content gardens. "Come with us," they said, "and we'll simplify all the complicated stuff and keep you safe from all the nasty horrible things out there."

But then people realised that all the nasty stuff wasn't so nasty after all. There was a wonderful world of content, shopping and other cool things just waiting be explored. And boy did it get explored. Then came broadband and everyone could do it faster.

No one would argue that mobile has mimicked that evolution in double quick time - just substitute AOL for operator portals, cool stuff for off-deck and broadband for 3G.

It's what happened next in fixed line that may give pause for thought. Two years ago broadband ISPs in the UK were screaming from the rooftops about all the multimedia delights that their services would let Joe Public enjoy.

BT famously ran adverts with characters bursting out of its DSL lines Jumanji-style into the real world. People bought into it - on-demand video services are now ten-a-penny, online gaming has exploded and downloads of huge files aren't given a second thought.

But guess what? All those extra bits and bytes coming down the pipe are costing ISPs a lot of money in bandwidth and all the while the prices they can charge end-users are coming down.

This summer ISPs were particularly unhappy with the BBC's iPlayer and suggested broadcasters should contribute towards some of the network costs that on-demand video services are incurring.

It will be interesting to see if the same arguments are repeated in mobile once streaming of rich media hits the mass market. Of course the operators already charge end-users for data usage, either by the megabyte or on a flat rate, but network capacity is still finite nonetheless.

What's really interesting is that, having dismantled their walled gardens, ISPs are now busy reassembling their content offerings in order to claw some revenue back. It's all about upselling. It started with security software, but now it's moving into digital retail and content lockers.

Could we see the same happen in mobile? Some operators are already toying with the lockers idea. The mobile walled garden may have had its day, but the flower beds may still bloom once again...