MNP & 3G: Generate and Integrate

In the face of stiff competition that per-second billing and a plethora of services have brought in, telecom service providers are desperately waiting for a breed of saviors. On their unending journey to acquire more and more subscribers each day, the operators are on the hunt for newer and more innovative revenue streams that will help them add meat to their ever-shrinking margins.

A telecom service provider can no longer survive on a single service offering. The customer is always demanding more value for what he spends. Thus, it becomes imperative for an operator to depend on multiple revenue streams. Managing these different inflows is a real test.

In order to identify hurdles in managing the multiple revenue streams and finding a solution to the big task, VOICE&DATA and Intec organized a roundtable discussion in Delhi and Mumbai. Conducted by Baburajan K, executive editor, VOICE&DATA, the two city event witnessed invigorating discussions among participants that included top service providers in the country.

At Delhi, the roundtable was packed with panelists who deliberated on newer revenue streams that would possibly aid operators to earn fatter margins. So from where will we see revenues flowing in?

Integrated Approach

With many options available, the operators will have to be innovative enough to generate new services through multiple partners and integrate them.

Prasenjit Mazumder, VP, Wipro said, "The ARPU game is going to change the operating margins. In that case, where will the investments come from? The operators will have to brainstorm on creating newer revenue streams en route newer applications. Being a chotta recharge country, India needs applications and services that are affordable so that a larger mass can have access to the services.”

It is important to identify consumers' usage behavior. “The kind of value add that customers these days are seeking are of the kind that you eat less, but it should taste more. So, the new services and data plans have to be designed in a fashion that enables them to do so," observed Shyam Mardikar, senior VP, networks, Bharti Airtel.

There are applications that can be tailor-made for the SMBs and interesting plans can be worked out for those. The biggest success lies in avoiding bill shocks, and for that the infrastructure should provide flexibility and self-service. Agreeing on this, Deepak Garg, deputy GM, IT, BSNL said, “A customer of an integrated service provider like BSNL is a customer of multiple VAS, and he is always looking at adjustments. At present, we do not have any such platform."

The operators are bound by different partnerships-both in-house and outsourced. They have revenue share models with multiple partners and their billing platforms should enable them to do so.

A K Dinkar, GM, mobile services, MTNL says, “One has to cater to individual needs, as tariffs are the same with almost all operators. It is important to retain and increase the customer base and the quality of services needs to be differentiated for this since tariffs are similar. Thus, we provide services based on technical know how and customer needs.”

Data: The Next 'In Thing'

India is entering in to a new era where voice alone will not decide the market. Gradually, the country is realizing its data needs.

Jamie Heywood, deputy CEO, Virgin said, “It is going to be a scale game with shrinking margins. There are concerns on the consumer side and service provider side as well. What needs to be done is to ensure that you have services that are easy and simple to roll out. There should be a strong partner management ecosystem.” Data is going to be the next most wanted thing, however, complicated services could wash out operators' dreams. He reasons that only about 1% people will be accessing social networking sites through mobiles as the access procedure is complicated. There is a distrust in the mechanism of being charged. So, it is important to build that trust first. For that the operators will have to make customers understand the monetary implications of their data usage. “It could be done through issuing a 'clear advice charge', depending on a consumer's user behaviour and caliberate his usage on monetary benefits,” suggested Mardikar.

Simplicity does play a critical role in the take off of a service. Raj Kumar VK, chief sales and distribution, Stel says, “No one is new to Internet. The consumer will have to learn to manage his monthly wallet size. He will decrease the use of either voice or data.”

MNP: A New Revenue Stream?

While the telecom industry appears divided on the kind of churn MNP is likely to bring in the Indian market, some of the industry experts sounded quite optimistic. Deepak Garg of BSNL said, "MNP might bring back users and re-affirm their faith. In a multi-SIM scenario, the challenge is to get a share of the mobile screen."

One of the panelists at Mumbai, Manoj Paul, COO, Bharti Airtel pointed out, “MNP is more of an opportunity than a challenge. MNP provides an option to customers to change services as they are not tied up like today, having to make do with bad services. Thus, MNP should come up soon. MNP, thus, presents an opportunity and a challenge for service providers."

Confidence reflected as Pradeep Dwivedi, SVP, marketing and product management, Tata Teleservices said, “We are waiting for MNP. It is a challenge, but will help us realize what customers look for when they feel the need to switch-not only tariff, but also network services. We will thus go with MNP, and see what happens along the way. From an enterprise point of view, MNP presents gaps; but for customers to gain confidence, flawless regulations and their implementation are important. Thus, regulators should get things in order first.”

MNP will create a price war once again. Thus, complete portability is required, else artificial stickiness disappears. Price level needs to be looked at. Implementations of services and introduction of sticky areas to retain customers are some steps that content providers have to employ.

But, there are doubts as a prepaid subscriber will have to leave the balance on the table of the donor operator and what will happen to the lifetime schemes. The new operators might be hoping to benefit the most, however, access network gaps are likely to spring up. The user may land from a congested network to a no network area.

Presenting the expertise of a technology vendor, Bikram Bedi, VP, South Asia, Intec said, “To manage all these issues, one needs scalable and flexible technology. As far as the partner side is concerned-in terms of content-this is equally important as a huge amount of content has to be delivered to the customers. Thus, one has to ensure that the maximum content is available in minimum time. Even if 80% are customers and 20% are partners, the 20% are also important.”

The bottomline is to keep the consumer happy. "Step up to compliment whatever you have already invested in,": that was the last word from the expert.

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in