Half of 31 operators interviewed by research company Mobile Squared have said they expect competition from over the top apps to eat significanty into voice and messaging traffic and revenue over the next 5-10 years.
Mobile Squared, commissioned by Mavenir, asked the operators what they thought the impact on their businesses would be from “OTT” applications such as Skype, iMessage and WhatsApp. 32.3 per cent of respondents thought operator traffic (from messaging, voice and video calling) would decline between 11 and 20 per cent and a further 20 per cent expected a decline of 31 to 40 per cent over the next 5-10 year period.
Gavin Patterson, chief markets analyst & head of data at Mobile Squared said, “This study confirms that lucrative messaging revenues are already impacted and operators are assessing ways to deliver core-network services in the all-IP environment. Rich Communication Ecosystem (RCE) applications are one example of how mobile operators can overcome the hurdles they face.”
The operator sample surveyed by Mobile Squared were split fairly evenly in terms of how they would address the deployment of simlar services. 42 per cent of operators said that they would roll-out IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based services to offer RCSe and VoLTE, while 45 per cent of operators think that other similar technologies would enable a quicker route to market.
Shubh Agarwal, Vice President, Marketing of Mavenir Systems, said, “This is one of the primary reasons the industry is currently moving towards an all-IP converged core network accelerated by the deployment of LTE technology. By allowing users to place high definition voice and video calls, chat, share content, and discover new services as part of a globally connected framework, operators can retain and even grow their share of customer communication spend.”