Wi-Fi Calling.

So with WhatsApp and Skype impacting revenues what do mobile operators have up their sleeves? Well, here comes Wi-Fi calling, which enables mobile phone users to make regular calls and text using the native phone dialer and text application and does not require a separate application additionally, the mobile phone is reachable via the normal phone number.

One issue that has come up is the absence of TTY (Text Telephone) support which lets people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired use the telephone to communicate, by allowing them to type messages back and forth to one another instead of talking and listening. Instead, some companies like AT&T are pursuing an alternative protocol called real-time text (RTT), which is compatible with IP networking.

A concern by most users is what happens when I am out of Wi-Fi range. If your carrier provides VoLTE (See previous post) then your mobile device will seamlessly connect to the VoLTE network and call continues. In a recent study done by Ericsson 4 out of 5 Wi-Fi calling users interviewed in the US are very satisfied with the service. Whilst 53% of users replaced WhatsApp usage with voice calls.

So let’s see who will be first to market in Trinidad and Tobago as it promises increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Business Analytics in Telcos

In todays telecom environment, there is much conversation surrounding analytics.  Having data exposed to a reporting tool (yes IT folks I am purposely keeping the blog simple) and producing reports that offer no insight into customer behavior adds no business value. Actually, I hold the view that having IT folks produce adhoc reports is a waste of a resource when business analyst are embedded in the business but that's for another post. For your analytics solution to add value it must provide the following:

Predictive analytics

Provide meaningful insights into customer’s behavior. Will the customer churn, if so, why and when (Identification of customer service issues), will they accept an upselling offer (target marketing).

Customer lifetime value segmentation

Identify customers by use of customer segmentation techniques, inclusive of scoring customers in these segments based on transactional data as well as providing real time information to the relevant customer service staff during interactions with customers.

Decision management

Recommend specific interactions for each individual customer along with targeted configurations and content

Gartner’s 2015 Magic Quadrants for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms as well as Advanced Analytics Platforms are provided for additional reading. Is your company using analytics and if so how?

Silent Roamers

A recent conversation with a friend of mine revealed that a lot of persons are still terrified of being hit by their mobile operator with a large roaming bill and as a result switch their phones off altogether when abroad as my friend did whilst in Miami, switching on only when free Wi-Fi is available.

In doing some research I came across a recent report which identified 90 percent of phone users are ‘silent roamers”. This obviously accounts for reduced revenue for providers from roaming subscribers as they seek cheap local calls in the country they are visiting or stay off the grid and use free Wi-Fi. With global roaming review set to increase to $90 billion by 2018 operators should be concerned about silent roamers.

The report, which summarized data gathered from 114 mobile operators in 83 countries also identified that 86% of subscribers lacked knowledge about how smartphones work whilst roaming, which may present an opportunity for local operators via further customer education to increase revenue. I wonder how many of us switch off whilst roaming?

Are you a silent roamer?

How secure is your personal data?

In the last three months we have seen issues arise with respect to the privacy of personal data and within the last few days one prominent citizen has indicated that their Facebook account was “hacked”. It begs the question how secure is our personal data and credit card information? In todays environment just having a demilitarized zone (DMZ), HTTPS and a VeriSign logo is not sufficient. These need to be supported by frequent vulnerability test, application of relevant security fixes, encryption and key management solutions to ensure that information in case of theft is unusable for the attacker and analytics to identify potential fraudulent transactions before the good or service is provided . Last but not least a security incident response team to address suspicious activity or suspected intrusions.

In October 2015 T-Mobile reported that confidential financial data for 15 million of its US customers was stolen from a server hosted by a third party. Also The Trump Hotel Collection reported a security breach of the credit cards used at certain hotels. With hackers working around the clock customers should be concerned about the data stored with their providers. Using a scale of 1 – 10 how confident are you that your personal data is secure?

Whatsapp and what’s next for providers?

Whatsapp, Facebook Viber and Skype and other social media applications that support messaging continue to erode voice revenue for telecom providers as a result of cost differences between these Over the Top (OTT) competitors and telecom providers.

Whilst traditional messaging services revenue is under threat from OTT offerings Short Messaging Services (SMS) still dominates the market with growth coming from the A2P (Application to person) market as it provides a cost-effective channel for engaging customers. Locally the increase in the adoption of smartphones is further leading to growing usage of mobile messaging services. Smartphones will account for 19% (4.6 billion) of all networked devices by 2019. One local operator has attempted to address the situation by blocking certain OTT apps. But there is hope for operators as they move customers to 4G, where Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) promises greater efficiency and enables providers to offer voice almost like an application. So let's see who will be first to market in TNT.

Note an advisory posted on the 19^th October 2015 notes that millions of Android devices are at risk because they lack the "appropriate permissions model" for LTE networks. A remote attacker on the provider's network may be able to establish peer-to-peer connections to directly retrieve data from other phones, or spoof phone numbers when making calls," the advisory warned. "A malicious mobile app for Android may be able to silently place phone calls without the user's knowledge." Not only that, by exploiting the way that Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) works, the researchers found that they could obtain free bandwidth from carriers without incurring additional charges.