As for the fifth, and final, primary enabler of the digital lifestyle, the most desirable experiences of the future will be advanced hybrids that combine feature sets from services cutting across many verticals and that can be controlled from a single device. For example, today we have connected cars, home medical devices, video chat, home-security monitoring, and a small variety of mobile-payment options, all of which are delivered to customers by different providers, most likely, with each one requiring a separate billing relationship and unique subscriber ID. The future involves these services and more working in seamless harmony, so CSPs must begin actively collaborating with other providers now if they hope to connect these experiences in a meaningful, secure and easy-to-use manner. 

Crafting partnerships based on direct-to-carrier billing is one way to go about it; Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have direct-to-carrier billing agreements with Google Play, for example. Telefónica CEO Matthew Key commented on the importance of this form of billing last July, saying, “The creation of Telefónica Digital has allowed us to better harness the power of this capability and use it to help drive the mobile monetization strategies of some of the world’s largest technology companies. We believe that direct-to-bill will become an increasingly significant part of the overall mobile commerce market.”

Telefónica Digital has direct-to-carrier billing deals with Microsoft, Google, and Facebook and is reaching out to other CSPs, including Etisalat, to partner on mobile financial services. “Like us, Etisalat recognizes the enormous potential of digital services for our sector,” Key said. “We strongly believe that open collaboration and partnership is the best way of driving innovation and delivering the best products and services to customers across our combined footprints.”

CSPs can also bring a wealth of unique data to the table to enrich their new services, including granular location, customer profile and network insight, thereby building the launch pad for a secure, single-login, fully integrated digital lifestyle.

Moving on up

The new verticals that represent the best opportunities for CSPs are healthcare, mobile money/finance, education, fleet and mobile-asset management, and connected cars. Further down the line we’ll see developments in connected homes and smart cities, generating additional opportunities, and eventually all of these verticals will overlap, with a connected digital identity penetrating almost every experience. However, for CSPs to innovate in new verticals, the game plan remains the same:

• service the digital lifestyle by providing end-to-end network visibility and expertise, high QoS for connectivity and pervasive cross-channel support;
• leverage LBS, either directly or through APIs (application programming interfaces) that can be monetized;
• emphasize security prowess and monetize enhanced security offerings;
• work as an industry to innovate in the field of identity management and offer single-login authentication for all digital services;
• pursue partnerships to create seamless service bundles that cut across multiple verticals and providers.

As mentioned earlier, CSPs are already the default support agents for all sorts of OTT services, and they excel at providing secure services and billing for billions of unique transactions and sessions. After all, the phone company was the original alternate-identity manager, and the cable guy knows what it takes to maintain a high-quality service. 

The world is changing at a fast clip, but that’s no reason for CSPs to become dumb pipes. Instead, the value of their assets must be expressed in a new light. If service providers innovate and transform to support new verticals, they’ll be sitting at the center of the new digital economy as trusted, not to mention profitable, experience providers.