Mobile broadband is changing user behaviour, and is set to give new life to messaging services that many have written off, argues Flavio Muscetra
High-bandwidth messaging services, such as MMS and video calling, have made slow progress since the technology and services first appeared. This is partly because initial business models did not address earning possibilities presented by these technologies. In the case of MMS, it is also because a lack of bandwidth resulted in a poor customer experience. The upshot is that little interest has been generated for these services on the part of the ‘average user'.
But with the recent bandwidth boom this situation is changing fast, with operators, vendors, advertisers, corporate brands, all the way down to the ‘average user', now set to use and benefit from exciting new high-bandwidth mobile messaging services in their everyday lives.
Mobile broadband is changing the behaviour and expectations of mobile customers all over the world. Some messaging services like multimedia messaging (MMS), which have seen a relatively slow uptake, are now experiencing a renaissance thanks to the increasing speed in sending/receiving. The improved compatibility with the growing number of new advanced mobile phones and smart phones on the market and the new applications for the use of MMS are fuelling this sea change.
Sending mass quantities of advert-appended messages, for example, with embedded rich, coloured images or short video clips, is on the increase, as many mobile network operators (MNOs) introduce mobile advertising services to their portfolio of revenue-generating value added services (VAS). Mass mobile advertising campaigns using rich content are enabling advertisers to reach wider, more targeted audiences with their brand messages than ever before.
Whilst the most widely used mobile advertising messaging medium remains the SMS, adding multimedia content messages using MMS is something that MNOs across the globe are exploring or have already started.
Impact on infrastructure
Using MMS to distribute mass numbers of messages, however, needs to be carefully evaluated, as it does impact existing MMSC infrastructure. Normally, MMSC licence models are based on messages per second and cannot handle huge peaks in traffic over short periods. Indeed, existing MMSC infrastructure on many networks may not even have been originally ‘dimensioned' to allow scaling to accommodate these increased peaks of messaging traffic.
For this reason, dedicated MMSC solutions need to be evaluated and tailored to enable operators to use MMS to deliver mass quantities of messages quickly, for any application. These solutions will not only address the technical requirements to support mass MMS traffic, but they will also comprise special licensing models that will accelerate an operator's return on investment.
A dedicated application-to-person MMS Optimiser is one proposition that will work along with any existing general-purpose MMSC without interfering with it. From a technical point of view, one key advantage is that the use of software optimisation techniques, such as pre-transcoding, optimised storage and bulk notifications will facilitate an increase in the number of transactions per second compared to a general-purpose MMSC.
Video enables value added services
Thanks to mobile broadband, other rich communication services are now possible using the much-neglected medium of the ‘video call'. Whilst being a widely-supported technology, the video call, much like MMS, has suffered from a lack of uptake and success. But it is yet another broadband-reliant technology that can be used to enable new VAS or corporate communication services.
Coming up with a new business model is the best way to revive a technology that, until now, has not reached its full potential and, in the case of video calling, MNOs should be encouraged to support the introduction of new, video-call-based VAS to their networks.
Video portals are a new way to deliver information or content directly to the mobile phone screen. They allow users to interact directly with content selection and retrieval, which raises the level of potential revenue-generating interaction, whilst the whole development makes use of an existing technology already embedded in 3G networks and beyond, and one already supported by all 3G phones.
Become the enabler
Enabling video-based VAS needs the proper elements to be in place. In fact, even if 3G networks already support the video call, this service must also be supported by the application side of the chain. This means that video-enabled media-gateways must be used and configured to enable the interaction between the end user mobile phone and the content itself. Software companies are investing in this field, designing and developing the optimal interactive video platform that will help MNOs to launch these new services.
In our opinion, there are three main types of interactive video services that an MNO will be interested in enabling:
– Value added services charged to the caller per call duration, at variable premium rates (depending on the video-dialled shortcode);
– As above, but Ad-funded;
– Company ‘institutional' video portals, charged to the company at a fixed monthly tariff.
The first case is probably the most interesting in terms of the range of potential revenue-making opportunities it offers. Providing video content directly to mobile phones without installing any applications will lower, or completely remove, the barriers to service access. Charging premium rates also makes the service interesting for MNOs and content providers, alike, as this opens up a scenario of potentially huge revenues. The real challenge here is in selecting the right content portfolio and how best to market/sell it to the target user. But as other premium-content-based service models have already proven, there are some ‘specific areas of interest', e.g. adult content, dating services, football highlights, and more, that are likely to trigger target market curiosity and a willingness, by the user, to access and pay for premium content.
The role of the MNO is one of being the ‘enabler' for the third-party content providers. The ideal case is that the operator allows these external content providers to provision content by themselves and also to create the video call flow. Doing this means providing the tools to allow the content providers to upload their multimedia content and create the video call flow in a very easy and intuitive way using visual drag and drop tools.
The second way forward is by allowing advertisers to pay for the service instead of the end user. Adding a three-second advertising video-clip before the requested video service might be an alternative way to charge for the service. The advertiser pays for the service because of the opportunity provided to show the target user their short video advert before they can access their selected video clip. This is a model that is already popular on the video portals available over the Internet.
The third model is one in which companies want to have a video portal to communicate with their customers on a regular basis. A typical example could be a car or motorbike manufacturer that wants to show their customers newly released vehicle models. These companies will pay a monthly fee to have their video portals online and accessible via a quick video call to a shortcode or mobile number. In this case, the MNO can either act as a pure enabler, or it can also offer professional services helping companies build and maintain their own video portals.
The success of broadband is absolutely crucial to encourage the increased use and uptake of high-bandwidth messaging and video services, which, until now, have been available but under-used due to restrictions posed by a lack of bandwidth and/or incomplete business models. Not only will the use of these existing technologies with new business models increase and enable operators to realise new revenue streams, but new, essential enabling technologies, such as the MMS Optimiser, will further boost MMS and video uptake.
These enabling technologies will not only address the technical requirements to support mass MMS traffic, but they will also comprise special licensing models that will accelerate an operator's return on investment. As business evolution is a continuous process, the opportunities for the development of new high-bandwidth VAS and mass messaging services are endless – and as long as broadband continues to offer increased capacity, bandwidth will no longer restrict the network's ability to deliver.
About the author: Flavio Muscetra is a Senior Product Manager, Jinny Software