Video quality vs. mobile data billing plans

• User preference for video quality is assessed under three mobile data billing plans.
• User choice of video quality depends on the billing plan used.
• No correlation was found between the user choices and age or gender.

Despite extensive research regarding the user willingness to pay under different billing plans and prices it is still unclear how users choose a preferred video quality under existing mobile data plans. This is especially important as the usage of adaptive video delivery servers that make use of different video quality levels is increasing. This study presents the results of assessing user preferences for video quality under three different mobile data billing plans. The results show that the user choice of different quality of video content depends on the billing plans used. It also shows that in the case when the mobile data plan is capped but the user has the possibility to pay extra for the exceeding quantity, s/he will choose higher video quality compared to the same plan in which the bandwidth is throttled when the bandwidth is exceeded. No correlation was found between the user choices and age or gender.