As has been predicted in many quarters, mobile data usage is soaring. Research published by analyst firm ABI suggests 39% growth from 2011 levels in the past year. That’s a lot – and inline with many earlier expectations.
However, the downside is that this has been accompanied by a corresponding decline in revenue from traditional sources, such as voice and texting. There’s no surprise in this – again, it’s been forecast for some time. The real question is, how do mobile operators generate more revenue from the increase of data consumption?
While one avenue to explore is the way in which operators can remain relevant to their customers, potentially through launching services based on RCS, such as Joyn, it’s not clear how such services lend themselves to revenue generation. They may create stickiness and enhance customer experience, but they may not necessarily generate revenues.
Another approach is to change pricing models away from “all you can eat” bundles, and many operators have either moved or are mobbing in this direction. Price plan innovation will be essential, but operators are also going to have to search hard to find new streams of revenue and that means being creative. What flies in one market may not fly in another, so there won’t necessarily be a panacea or template that can be emulated by operators across a region.
Instead, another approach that can complement new price plans and policies is to think about how they can work on a micro level, catering to the needs of different audiences and increasing individual revenue with tailored and personalised services, meeting real-time demands and responding to user requirements.
To do this requires the ability to match user demands on a per customer and per application basis in real-time, potentially creating new sources of revenue that can, in the aggregate, make a significant contribution alongside macro instruments.
That means leveraging the ability to personalise individual as well as mass experiences. The only way to effectively achieve this is to extend policy to the mobile device, creating a network of intelligent end-points and delivering real-time service activation and optimisation and pricing offers attractively. To paraphrase a famous slogan somewhat, operators can tune services according to the capabilities of the devices and deliver services according to the needs of users.
To find out how to create such an environment, why not talk to us? We are seeing how operators are coming up with creative ways in which to deliver customised services by leveraging device level policies. Meet with us at Mobile World Congress to find out how!
