According to new research from Sky Mobile, 84% of UK parents prefer to offer their children digital rewards instead of money, and 43% wish their mobile network offered data sharing so they could use extra data as just such a reward.

The research also found that 1 in 10 parents already share extra data with their children as a reward. Sky Mobile allows customers to roll over any spare data at the end of the month into their Sky Piggybank, which can then be shared with their children.

Tarifica’s Take

It’s true that Sky Mobile already offers rollover data, and that its customers can share this extra data with their kids, so the results of its research are a bit convenient. However, there is much other operators can learn from these results.

The fact that close to half of parents would appreciate being able to share their data with their children as a reward instead of the traditional cash points to an area of untapped potential. Offering this kind of data sharing might encourage parents to purchase slightly larger data packages for the purpose of using the leftover gigabytes to incentivize their kids.

Last month, we mentioned that rolling over unused data is not as common as it once was in the mobile marketplace. However, given the results of Sky Mobile’s research, an increase in popularity may be on the horizon, especially for those operators targeting more budget-conscious family customers.