m-VoIP is the way to go apparently
MNOs developing their own m-VoIP - Windle
It seems that market research firm, Infonetics Research, has set the cat amongst the pigeons with its latest mobile VoIP services and subscribers report. The report tracks Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) and OTT [Over-The-Top] revenue, subscribers and deployments for m-VoIP services by world region. The report says that OTT mobile VoIP subscribers will reach one billion this year [2013]. This has led to speculation from the likes of Tektronix Communications and OpenCloud over how things will play out in the vital m-VoIP sector.
Tektronix Communications seems to think that MNOs will react by acquiring OTT players and partners in order to stay ahead of the game.
Meanwhile, OpenCloud predicts that VoIP over LTE/4G will become the way to go.
“The market can expect a significant bout of merger and acquisition
activity in 2013 and beyond, as CSPs enter into joint ventures with OTT providers and look to accelerate growth in market share by acquiring OTT competitors,” said Freddie Kavanagh, vp o for applications solutions with Tektronix Communications.
“This will help drive premium service offerings and revenue and
will also help ensure that OTT services minimise impact on the operator network infrastructure, ” Kavanagh continued.
“These OTT services will be developed in closer collaboration with the operator.”
“The operator’s access to network data and their billing relationship with customers should be leveraged to drive more personalised offerings and create trust and satisfaction.”
“Operators should look at network and customer data as a valuable asset which can be used by external parties, for example retail shopping or market research companies.”
“As mobile internet access becomes more pervasive, end-users are becoming more inclined to use VoIP apps for voice calls,” said Mark Windle, head of marketing with OpenCloud.
“While OTT providers like Skype and Viber have prospered on the growing demand for VoIP services, operators are responding through investment in VoLTE and the development of their own VoIP applications.”
“LTE roll-out will make the voice services market much more competitive. Mobile VoIP has only been viable to date over WiFi and 3G+ networks.”
Although both can sometimes provide sufficient bandwidth for the use of voice services they do place restrictions on the user.
Wi-fi is limited to fixed locations for nomadic rather than mobile users.
Whilst genuinely mobile users can make VoIP calls over 3G+, coverage and capacity is limited which leads to erratic and unreliable service.
LTE makes much more efficient use of the spectrum than 3G/3G+ and so reduces the cost-per-bit of data.
LTE provides the operator and OTT provider alike with the platform to launch cutting edge voice services.
For mobile operators, the differentiation will be that they will be able to offer a service that provides subscribers with a ‘complete’ universal mobile voice and video service.
This will deliver many features – such as service quality, ubiquity, coverage and reliability – that end users now take for granted.
Importantly, these services, connected via guaranteed bandwidth connections and with seamless handover at cell boundaries, come with a QoS that sets them a league above the OTT alternatives.
“However, to compete effectively in any market requires differentiation. In order to compete effectively in the imminent LTE voice services market, network operators must take control of their services’ roadmaps and become the pioneering companies they once were,” said Mark Windle.
The key step is that operators must break away from the habit of accepting the compromise of proprietary, closed solutions that are expensive and time-consuming to customise.
“Instead, they should harness the power of open VoLTE solutions, and the independent developer ecosystems that come with them, in order to cost-effectively establish the competitive differentiation needed to build and retain voice market share,” Windle added.
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