Flexibility Matters
Pricing strategies aside, operators are going to need to get serious about getting nimble, real-time OSS/BSS solutions in place that will allow them to react to what customers are consuming, and then in turn, provide the service, bill for the service and present value-added service opportunities in fractions of a second. That means real investment in innovative policy, billing, customer service and data analytics tools that will provide opportunities for creative new services for customers and manage exploding mobile broadband traffic.
Levine points to several examples where this kind of innovation is already happening.
Orange Botswana does traffic-based rating in which data rates rise in response to traffic conditions. Teliasonera is doing "value-based pricing" in which bandwidth is bundled with content (think your Kindle, where the bandwidth required to download a book is included in the cost of the book). Rogers Communications offers day passes that bundle Web browsing, access to social network sites, email and mobile messaging for a daily rate. And Globe Telecom provides subscribers with unlimited free calling between Globe handsets and landlines within a specific geographic area, as part of its loyalty/churn management program.
She adds that LTE rollout will likely drive the same level of innovation in network agility in North America. Because of the capital investment that's going to be required for the switch is going to cause networks to look very closely at how they can get the most return on the investment.
"But it's going to take some time."
Thad Dupper, Chairman and CEO of Evolving Systems points out that that dynamic provisioning is going to become critical as prepaid data plans become more common.
With dynamic provisioning, operators can tailor the customer sign-up process and the types of products offered to customers depending on the device type and/or other factors like location," Dupper says. "They can use the capabilities of the browser on the device to explain tariffs and options clearly, reducing confusion and increasing customer satisfaction. They can also offer relevant promotions - including operator-supporting two-sided business models and advertising.
He adds that operators don't have to give up the customer-retention fight in order to offer flexible, prepaid plans.
"For operators, one of the key benefits of delivering this level of personalization is that it helps them keep churn rates under control."
The Policy of Policy
Network policy and management will be vital to making sure networks can deliver the level of service necessary to meet customer demand. This itself can potentially become a differentiating service. Customers could choose, as part of a tiered pricing strategy, how much bandwidth they're willing to pay for. In the case of streaming movies, operators and service providers could offer a more expensive package with a higher quality of service, so customers could choose how much breakup they're willing to live with.
Levine says she'll be interested to see how Net Neutrality and other regulation might impact this business model. She points to the Netherlands where laws were recently passed against any kind of policy that preferred one customer over another. She adds that since Netherlands was the first to regulate Net Neutrality in June of this year, so the full impact is still to be felt.
"Making sure that the service experience and network enforced policies are based on the customers' preferences and current spending and usage balance in BSS," is what will help networks keep up with skyrocketing demand for mobile broadband, Niclas Melin,
Market Category Driver OSS/BSS for Ericsson says.
Regardless of the region, the internet has gone mobile and data is king. It's transformative times like these where only the smartest and most innovative survive. But that's nothing new for network operators; just another day at the office.
