The agile telco must evolve in both traditional market segments and new ones to make sure it stays relevant, and profitable. Antony Savvas looks at some of the latest developments that can help drive success.
Research from Enea and Mobilesquared shows that mobile network operators could add up to US$29.4 billion in revenue over the next five years by adopting value-based pricing for application-to-person (A2P) SMS. This is important as A2P SMS volumes are declining primarily due to rising international termination fees, resulting in lower operator revenues. The research outlines how shifting from flat-rate pricing to a value-based model can reverse this trend. It is estimated that for every US$0.01 increase above US$0.10, A2P SMS traffic drops by 2.9%, when using the current flat-rate pricing model.
But value-based pricing significantly slows the decline in A2P SMS traffic, with traffic losses to be less than half of those expected under flat-rate pricing. By optimising pricing per message category, mobile network operators (MNOs) can increase revenues by more than 130%, says the research, as brands are projected to spend US$29.4 billion more on A2P SMS over five years.
The rising international termination fees have reached levels that make it difficult for brands to justify A2P SMS costs, especially for non-critical messages. Flat pricing models ignore message value differences, leading to overpricing of lower-value categories. Value-based pricing differentiates SMS charges based on message criticality, and implementing value-based pricing enables operators to maximise revenue per message category “without risking overpricing the channel”, says the research.
To implement the transformation, operators obviously need to understand the purpose of messages. AI-driven SMS firewalls, such as the Enea Adaptive Messaging Firewall, provide per-message insights, enabling accurate billing and pricing enforcement.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where every price increase leads to a sharp drop in A2P SMS traffic,” says Nick Lane, chief messaging officer, ‘messagologist’ and founder at Mobilesquared. “Our research shows that value-based pricing can slow this decline and help operators monetise their traffic more effectively.”
John Hughes, the senior vice president and head of network security at Enea, adds: “The change requires a powerful and concrete application of AI, and this research confirms its potential to help operators unlock billions in revenue annually.”
Evolving connectivity action at the edge
Blue Wireless, part of the Wireless Logic Group, says it is “redefining connectivity” in the enterprise and service provider space with the launch of its next generation Global Wireless Ethernet service (GWE). GWE offers a layer 2 solution that delivers a point-to-point Ethernet service over fixed wireless access (LTE/5G) across over 80 countries. With the prevalence of 5G/LTE services, lower latency and increased coverage, wireless networking has evolved into a realistic alternative to traditional wired networks. However, it has been mostly limited for broadband internet access use.
With the introduction of GWE, global service providers (GSPs) now have a true wireless Ethernet last mile capability, with the freedom to apply their own network policies, such as VLANs, IP addressing and routing policies. “Offering layer 2 wireless Ethernet connectivity is a game changer for our customers,” says Joop Gerlach, the chief technology officer at Blue Wireless. “They now have the freedom to route their traffic wherever they choose, across a global backbone, to private and public clouds or directly to the internet.”
GWE can enable direct, dedicated links for mission-critical traffic with increased service levels, with global coverage supported by six major points of presence supporting over 80 countries in the Asia Pacific, European and the Americas regions. The enterprise-grade service wrap being promised includes a single contract, on-site installation, 24/7 support and a “consistent service worldwide”.
Trash talk shows mobile players are fighting for every dollar
The leading mobile operators in the US are fighting likes rats in a sack to win more customers as new technologies promise more bucks, and it’s all very entertaining. The US advertising regulator has tried to ban AT&T from making T-Mobile‘s alleged marketing and advertising failings a key plank of its own advertising strategy to win more market share. AT&T is very peeved at this, and is now suing the regulator for the right to point out in its advertising that T-Mobile has been chastised by the regulator no less than 16 times over four years, for allegedly misleading the US public over the quality of its services.
It was rather entertaining walking through Times Square in New York recently, and seeing Verizon entering the trash talk fray in its own way, with a huge billboard attacking T-Mobile and AT&T, for what it says are broken promises to customers. Long may the feud continue.
Antony Savvas