 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific I 2013 |
| Article no.: | 7 | |
| Topic: | Voice customers in an all-IP connected mobile world | |
| Author: | Pardeep Kohli | |
| Title: | President and CEO | |
| Organisation: | Mavenir Systems | |
| PDF size: | 286KB |
About author
Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO, Mavenir Systems, is a Wireless Industry Veteran with 20 years of experience. Previously Mr Kohli, was the co-founder, President and CEO, of Spatial Wireless. Following Spatial Wireless’ acquisition by Alcatel, Mr Kohli as Senior Vice President of the Mobile NGN business and led the continued expansion of the Spatial Wireless product around the world. Mr Kohli also served in a variety of executive roles at NEC America, DSC, Alcatel and PacBell. While at PacBell, Mr Kohli participated in the technology selection and network implementation of the first large US GSM network.
Article abstract
Mobile Network Operators’ (MNO) need to develop both their voice and data and rich media services businesses. Voice, is still their core revenue driver, but competition is growing. VoLTE (voice-over-LTE) makes possible such services as HD voice, mobile video, chat and conferencing and can support voice services on multiple connected devices. The next level – Rich Communication Services (RCS) will provide data and rich media services, and help MNOs earn a return on their investment in packet-based data infrastructure.
Full Article
At the top of the Mobile Network Operator’s (MNO) agenda in recent years has been how to develop a long-term strategy to grow business through data and rich media services. Desperate to keep up with their customer’s demands, MNOs have been on a journey – to not only set themselves apart from their competitors with compelling service offerings – but also to reduce customer churn and increase ARPU (Average Revenue per User) and ultimately, profitability. This, at a time when mobile data usage in Asia seems destined to burst at the seams in the coming years. The key trends driving telecoms revenue and connection growth in the next five years will be the roll-out of 3G and 4G services, which will account for 46 per cent of connections by 2016 according to a report by Analysys Mason. With such a focus on data and rich media, it might seem that MNO’s have abandoned what was once the ‘bread and butter’ of their revenue streams – voice services. Especially as over the top (OTT) service providers such as Skype, Google, Whatsapp, and others muscle their way in on the fixed and mobile voice markets.
However, it is the packet-data technology that MNO’s have invested in, that is about to add to their fortunes. Currently 4G is available in regions across Asia including Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Planned 4G rollouts also include regions in India, Thailand and China. Therefore Asia is helping to lead the way to LTE. As operators take the next transitional journey to LTE, they will be able to tap into new voice revenue opportunities, to provide fully connected IP mobile packages to their customers.
As MNOs have wrangled their way through the twists and turns of mobile IP technology, voice always remained a core revenue generator with the market for wireless voice services still totalling more than US$600 billion, which represents some 70 per cent of global wireless revenue. The fact is people still want to talk, and operators are using voice as a strategic asset that they can leverage as part of a richer suite of communication services. By leveraging the assets they already have, MNOs can provide a better quality of service, with more and better on-demand services, challenging Over the Top (OTT) providers, which will in turn, increase their relevance in the customer relationship.
Transitioning to a VoLTE environment
For voice to generate more revenue than it already does, MNOs must exploit the IP technology they have in place. Currently, voice services are undergoing a major transformation and voice traffic will continue to rapidly evolve from circuit switched voice in 2G and 3G networks, towards a carrier-grade VoLTE (voice-over-LTE). For example, this year we saw the first commercial VoLTE service launch by Metro PCS in the US and we can expect to see many more VoLTE services rolled out across 2013. Asia is also leading the voice over LTE charge. South Korea and Hong Kong have already successfully launched LTE data roaming and by August 2013, SK Telecom expects to have the Samsung Galaxy S3, the first handset to support VoLTE on its network.
The move to VoLTE opens the door to provide additional carrier grade services that can easily interact with voice and will provide new and innovative communications experiences for the subscribers. VoLTE provides exciting opportunities; and bring innovations to a suite of new voice offerings over WiFi enabled smartphones. VoLTE will afford a source of competitive differentiation and potential for revenue enhancement. VoLTE will make possible such new and enhanced voice services as HD voice, mobile video, chat and conferencing, as well as the ability to support voice services on multiple connected devices.
Not all operators are ready to commence the LTE journey. Nevertheless, this will not keep them from embracing new voice revenue opportunities as other technologies such as VoWiFi (voice over WiFi) and VoHSPA (voice over HSPA) will become important platforms for monetising the full breadth of voice services that mobile operators might wish to offer. Pre-LTE mobile operators can transition onto VoWiFi or VoHSPA in the interim, utilising wireless interfaces that are more spectrally efficient, and eventually remove their dependency on legacy networks.
VoWiFi also gives operator the ability to improve their coverage within the home or office, and to extend their voice services outside the area covered by their licensed spectrum. For subscribers, this can mean making a call anywhere without having to pay expensive roaming charges, thus further increasing their loyalty to the operator.
Transforming to convergence
The journey towards greater voice revenue streams for MNOs does not end at VoLTE, since VoLTE is really just one of the first steps towards an all-IP connected mobile world. Devices, location and geography no longer segment and separate communications as they did on legacy networks. Users are increasingly wishing to take their communications experience to a new level where communications extend across phones and tablets with simultaneous logins, one number support and a common user experience no matter how they are initially connected. To achieve this, MNOs will need to go to the next level – Rich Communication Services (CRCS/RCS-e), and eventually Rich Communication Services version 5 (RCS 5.0).
Following the endorsement by five MNO groups – Deutsche Telecom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and Vodafone – and the recent launch by MetroPCS, which is the first 4G LTE mobile service provider to launch RCS, RCS has become a de-facto standard of reference. RCS 5.0 is an architecture that will enable true network packet-switched convergence for all messaging and voice services. Independent market research firm, Infonetics Research, expects that 15 million service subscribers, the majority in Asia and Western Europe, will be using RCS, RCS-e, and RCS-like services by 2013.
RCS 5.0 technology was conceived to enable customers to access the packet data network infrastructure to avail themselves of new, better quality, and more affordable voice, video and messaging services. MNOs can now begin to move ahead with their plans to deploy an all-IP, converged RCS5 infrastructure. The all-IP infrastructure will let MNOs offer high quality enhanced multimedia applications. In addition to their standard services, MNOs will also be able to offer groups of customised services – such as Person-to-Person (P2P), Application-to-Person (A2P), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) – to further leverage their revenue streams.
Payback on MNO investment
An all-IP connected mobile world is the future for MNOs and the deployment of RCS-e and RCS5 will be critical to reaching that goal. With data and rich media services, and the promises of VoLTE, the MNOs’ heavy investment in packet-based data infrastructure is about to pay off. In the all-IP connected mobile world, converged voice, video and messaging (RCS5) will be pivotal to the new generation of mobile communications.
