Mobile operators struggling with declining revenue from traditional services are under pressure to differentiate into new services, but this can be easier said than done.
New research from Alcatel-Lucent details seven major new service opportunities for operators in the smartphone era, which may help operators manage the difficult task of monetizing mobile data.
In a series of reports due to be released between August and October, the vendor has also explored the ways new technologies such as wearables and the IoT will change the way consumers interact with their mobile devices in the future.
According to the report summary, there will be major opportunities for operators to diversify and find new revenue streams in areas including VoLTE and HD Voice and Wi-Fi calling, as well as voice and video calls over IoT objects.
Operators can also seek to counteract declining core revenues by evolving their calling and texting services to introduce app-like functionality.
Users will also be willing to pay for value-added services based on social information, and there is high interest among consumers for services to protect privacy such as disposable anonymous identities.
Despite relatively low usage today, there are also opportunities in the arena of video calling, the research shows.
“Smartphone owners today know what they want in terms of apps and services and this report helps service providers cut through the clutter, identify opportunities for differentiation from over-the-top players, and recognize real business benefits,” Alcatel-Lucent VP of IP platforms Josh Aroner said.
The first of the full reports is due to be published on August 4.