Mobile phone users don’t necessarily hate the ads they’re being shown when they visit various sites but they’re unhappy about the data they chew when the ads start to roll. Sending a reported 30 per cent of phone users over their monthly data limit.
Now a new start-up company called Optimal.com has released on online calculator that allows users to work out how much money they’d save on their plans if they downloaded ad blocking software.
Optimal call themselves an ethical ad blocking service that allows users to pay publishers of their favourite sites not to show them ads. YouTube is planning something similar where you can pay a flat monthly fee of $25 not to see any pre-roll ads.
According to Optimal the average US mobile phone user can save $US7.19 ($A9.40) a month in excess data charges by using a mobile ad blocker when browsing the web on their phones.
To use the calculator users must input the number of minutes they spend browsing the web on their phones each day, how much the telco charges and how much they charge for going over their data limits.
Optimal’s co-founder Rob Leathern recently told International Business Times: “(Users) will be paying publishers for the right to block ads.
“I think consumers will recognise they don’t want to see content creators disappear, they want to support them. And publishers don’t want to feel like they’re forced into a corner where they only have to work with Facebook or Google to make money — they deserve a choice, like the consumer.”