Broadband Service: The NextGen Strategy

Imagine this. You are a telco offering gaming services and have a significant

user base. You meet a new content provider who agrees to give you unlimited

rights for his next game, which has become a major hit. You want to get it up

and running by the approaching weekend. Do you have a solution that can help you

manage and monetize this new service? Or will you simply pass up the

opportunity?

Welcome to the dynamic world of broadband, where a new service gets born a

minute! With broadband access proliferating across the world, telcos providing

these services are getting increasingly pressurized to rapidly introduce NextGen

offerings that capture the imagination of the user, enhance customer delight and

open up fresh revenue streams.

The

key challenge before these telcos lies in how they can successfully maximize

revenues from the new services they are offering. How they can combat

competition and differentiate in an increasingly "me-too" market. How

they can charge for these NextGen services and integrate the billing for these

services with existing solutions, well before others catch up.

Voice: Ruling the Roost



If we review the current broadband services landscape-touching areas such

as entertainment, business, e-governance, e-medicine, e-education or consumer

applications-we will find it continues to be dominated by voice services.

Voice is also the core service in applications such as video telephony,

video-on-demand, live streaming services, movies, Web video and games.

For telcos offering some of these newly available converged services to the

consumer, SOHO or business segments, issues of bundling and monetization are

assuming utmost importance.

While targeting consumer, telcos need to remain cost sensitive and focused on

"keeping it simple." What this means is that they have to go in for

simple pricing schemes and ease-of-installation and use. Real-time usage

monitoring and unified billing are some of the features they require from the

product management software they deploy.

Telcos targeted at the SOHO segment need to opt for a monetization solution

that is cost sensitive and offers customer the ability to roam, enhanced

features and the flexibility to add or remove services.

When targeting large enterprise customers, telcos have to look at offering

telephony infrastructure, high quality services, integration with business

applications and remote and home working solutions.

NextGen services: in search of monetization solutions



In today's environment, most of the NextGen services being monetized by

operators/service providers, focus on unlimited bundling for voice and a per

minute fee, once the usage exceeds the bundle. Product bundling, meanwhile is

the grouping of multiple services, which can be either offered free or in

conjunction with certain features.

Leading global telcos, including reputed VoIP services providers such as

Vonage are attempting to differentiate their offerings by creating bundles for

different types of users-Business, SOHO and home.

In the case of companies such as Webex, that provide a range of broadband

services which have moved beyond voice, to applications such as Web

conferencing, the bundle extends beyond plain minutes to the number of

participants and total minutes for all participants, combined.

In the area of online gaming, for instance, broadband service providers are

attempting to figure out how to transition pricing from a flat subscriber basis

to a per participation basis (or per stroke basis).

NC Soft, the company that has launched the popular game, City of Heroes, is

even considering linking the issue of monetization to the result of the game!

Most services providers are monetizing services in three ways: on a per

transaction basis, on the basis of a limited bundle or an unlimited one.

Typically services such as voice mail, caller ID and three-way conferencing

are included for free as unlimited bundles. Access comes in a limited bundle.

Enhanced services such conferencing, online gaming, among others, attract a

premium and can be charged on a per transaction basis.

Besides a fixed monthly subscription, NextGen service providers are offering

consumers a "prepaid wallet," a replenishable debit card paid for in

advance, to charge for additional offerings such as international long distance

calling, ring tones, skins, etc.

For services such as web conferencing more often used by business, usage fees

appear as postpaid charges on the bill since its simpler to deal with.

At the end of the day, what telcos need, are tools that manage the revenues

for their NextGen services, increase RoI and help them bring new offerings to

market rapidly.

Ankur Lal Founder and CEO Infozech Software vadmail@cybermedia.co.in