Premium services like the mobile internet are limited to a narrow niche. What does it take to appeal to the mass market‾
A group of telecoms executives, gathering in Singapore for a panel discussion, insist that simplicity and pragmatism are the keys to taking new services, such as mobile broadband, to the mass market.
The discussion was held last month at a joint Amdocs-Telecom Asia one-day conference focusing on the customer experience, which attracted some 70 operators from Asia Pacific. Telecom Asia group editor Joseph Waring was the moderator of the session entitled 'Peering into the crystal ball - what does the future hold for service providers‾'
Looking at the types of services that will both enrich peoples' lives and drive growth for operators, Effortel CMO Liudvikas Andriulis noted that right now most applications are interesting to only 5-7% of mobile subscribers. He said the real test will come when shoppers at Carrefour, the second largest retailer after Walmart, start using the new services or applications such as the mobile internet.
Andriulis stressed the importance of simplicity and pragmatic day-to-day services people can use. 'When people can read the news, order things and make payments, which help them in their daily lives, then the real mobile internet revolution will come. It's not about technology, but finding ways to give people practical ways to use this technology.'
Effortel enables brands to offer simple and low-cost mobile services to their customers. The company's first major client was Carrefour in Belgium in 2006, and now has MVNOs with Carrefour in Italy, Poland and Taiwan (set up last November using Chunghwa Telecom's network).
He believes that for the next five to ten years his customers will continue to focus on basic services. 'If you want to measure the success of a technology, see if it can or is mass retail.'
Amdocs China's head of marketing Lee Yee said that when it comes to enriching people's lives in China it's all about productivity. In developed countries many simple everyday tasks are taken for granted, but in countries like China people have to stand in line each month just to pay the electricity bill or water bill. He said speeding up this process can improve people's lives.
In the financial industry, he said many banks have taken proactive initiatives to mobilize their operations, so mobile subscribers can do most of their basic banking transactions on their handsets. He said service providers need to focus on determining the productivity needs of each strata of users, be they mobile internet users or basic voice users, to develop innovative services for each segment.
Frost & Sullivan's head of telecom research in Asia Pacific Jayesh Easwaramony said there are two ways of looking at the future of services. 'First, the internet is a killer app on its own. So whatever ecosystem develops to support the mobile internet will be the telco enablers. That's the internet driven view of the future.'
He said the second area is where telcos identify the points of differentiation on integration with that world to make the experience richer.