This article, written by Fridy (Sharon Fridman), Principal Technologist, Neustar, argues that although mobile IM services have not been a huge success for operators, RCS offers an opportunity to increase revenues, and compete with the over the top providers.
I’m not sure what I make of this. Two years ago, indeed one year ago, NeuStar were ardent advocates of the GSMA PIM initiative and operator-led interoperable mobile IM. Now RCS offers a wider, smoother, path to more “fulfilled” services, Fridman argues. “The future is still bright as operators are learning from their mistakes…”
See what you think.
Operators learning from mobile IM in the delivery of RCS services Author: Fridy.
Mobile IM is a service that consumers clearly understand. There are many like for like services that have been successful over fixed line networks for a number of years, so in many ways its introduction as an integral part of the mobile experience only seems to be a matter of time, but is this still the time? Well, yes and no. Unfortunately, mobile IM has often been limited to specific handset manufacturers without built in interoperability between them. Consumers have also never had a ‘known method’ for mobile IM with which to gain familiarity.
Operators have stood still for too long, benefitting from SMS revenues without being able to introduce a service that provides a clear route to increase revenues. But, instead of being the end of mobile IM, it is only the beginning. The future is still bright as operators are learning from their mistakes through the delivery of a more enhanced set of rich communication services (RCS).
Operators sitting on their ‘SMS’ revenues
It has been well documented right from the start of smart phone evolution that IM would be a useful service to bring to consumers to add value to their mobile phone experience. In fact, for those manufacturers such as BlackBerry who were quick to capitalise (through its delivery of BBM), the services have been very successful and in fact have provided a point of differentiation for consumers. Surprisingly however, for the rest of the handset manufacturers and operators, the adoption of mobile IM has been extremely slow.
There have been many contributory factors that have led to a situation where operators have seemed happier to ‘sit’ on the revenues provided by SMS and continue to increase their market share compared to other carriers. For a start, mobile IM has often not been viewed as an attractive prospect because of the growing number of free services available from vendors. As a result, consumers’ general perceptions are that mobile IM services should be free.
Fring is one of the best examples of a provider that has brought video and mobile IM services free to multiple handsets across operators. It is a well designed service that operates across a number of operating platforms and was gathering momentum with consumers due to the excellent user experience that it provides. Unfortunately however, Skype, who were originally on board – meaning that consumers could integrate their services – has pulled out due to what it seems is a lack of revenue opportunities.
RCS: A chance for operators to monetise mobile IM
To move with the times, and the increased number of services that are now available on smart phones, operators have looked beyond mobile IM to provide a more fulfilled offering. Mobile IM therefore now falls within the subset of RCS. This GSMA initiative comprises of service providers and vendors (network, device and client) working together to profile existing standards, test devices and enable handset interoperability, network interoperability as well as service provider interworking. Consumers often have multiple contacts with the same operator, so ensuring that they can communicate with their contacts across a number of handsets is a priority even before issues between different operators are addressed.
RCS fits the lifestyle communication needs of ‘always-on’ mobile users and is the starting point for their social interaction. Its feature rich portfolio of services unleashes the communities hidden in the user’s phonebook and will make multimedia social networking much simpler. Just some of the services that have been suggested as part of this include; enhanced address book, rich call and rich messaging.
The enhanced address book provides presence and capability indications, enables users to initiate communications such as voice calls, video calls, file transfers or messaging, and allows users to integrate multimedia elements, such as photos of contacts. Presence lets users inform their social groups to their availability and state of mind. It allows for both communication and also personalisation through the use of avatars, availability and status information.
Richer calling enables users to exchange varying types of media, such as video or photos, during a call. This is beneficial for both personal contacts and also professional networks where presentations and documents can be sent live over a voice call. While rich messaging expands on traditional instant messaging to simplify and unify multiple messaging streams and provide a richer user experience, it builds on the features currently available in desktop-based IM clients and gives users a familiar user interface to work from.
The proposition of ‘passive communication’ provided by these added features make RCS very attractive for operators. In addition to active communication where consumers can trigger calls, IM or video conversations, consumers can view in real-time the activities of their friends, ensuring that they are regularly updated on the social hemisphere. As a result, consumers begin to use their phones more to connect more closely and more regularly with their friends, driving revenues generated through active communications.
Operators countering ‘over the top’ services
From an operator’s perspective, RCS is being developed as a service that can fend over the services developed by ‘over the top’ providers such as Skype, Facebook and Google. To counter the ‘excitement’ that these providers can instil within consumers, operators have to work hard to develop the experience created by RCS and also drive a ‘buzz’ around it. As with SMS and MMS, operators will be focusing on how RCS can add value to enhance third party applications and services.
There is also a continued progression towards cloud based services. Organisations specialising in interoperability, enable smaller operators to take advantage of RCS capable phones and new phones supporting the rich communication capabilities, enabling them to deploy a cost-effective solution. With the use of the cloud, it is now possible to provide a financially viable “pay-as-you-grow” model for hosted and managed mobile IM and RCS solutions.
Future outlook
According to forecasts from Infonetics, by 2011 there will be 7.5 million RCS subscribers mostly in Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Following a clear trend for converged and social features, to compete with ‘over the top’ providers, it is clear that operators need to move fast if they are to take advantage of this potential new revenue stream. Operators however, do need to take note and learn from their earlier mobile IM experiences. If they get the proposition right, RCS is likely to be a very exciting development for both operators and consumers alike.