Guest Post: Time for comms to get real in 2013

by Mark Windle, head of marketing with OpenCloud

The arrival of LTE around the globe and in the UK was one of the defining features of 2012. Operators are under increasing pressure from Over-The-Top (OTT) services and are looking to use LTE spectrum to develop innovative IP-based services to catch up with other offerings on the market and defend their market share in the voice, messaging and video calling marketplace. During 2013, I expect to see some interesting innovations from operators as they look to claw back market share from OTT players, protect their revenues, and reconnect with the consumer. However, they won’t be the only ones looking for something new.
VoIP keeps marching On

VoIP was initially confined to use from fixed locations over fixed-line broadband. Today, consumers are increasingly using free VoIP apps on their mobile devices from static Wi-Fi hotspots.

LTE will enable these services to attract more mobile use through better data connections and with options such as HD voice and video.

“webRTC will enable browser-to-browser applications without the need for plugins”

In 2013 I anticipate that more and more operators will launch branded VoIP services and applications.

We have already seen T-Mobile Poland release Freeyah, Orange release Libon and Teléfonica release Tu Me, and we expect to see more of these services being deployed across Europe.

Operators have the experience of connecting consumers to different networks and geographies and can apply this experience to their VoIP applications.

This will considerably differentiate their offerings from OTT applications, which generally have closed user groups, making them a much more appealing service for consumers.

WebRTC – the new face of communications

The introduction of WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) will trigger the emergence of a substantially new personal communication paradigm – and the chances are that it won’t be the work of a network operator.

WebRTC enables anyone to wrap personal communications into their web-service.

It will enable browser-to-browser applications (without the need for plugins) for voice calling, video chat, in-game communication and so on.

Because of the number of people able to exploit this open technology, I anticipate some exciting innovations sooner rather than later – that’s the great thing about open technologies.

Consumers reluctant to ‘JOYN’ in

Meanwhile, the mobile industry is still looking to catch up with OTT providers by developing its own Rich Communication Services (RCS).

At Mobile World Congress 2012, JOYN was announced as the consumer facing brand for RCSe.

Whilst JOYN is the operators’ answer to the competition posed by WebRTC and OTT services, this rich communication service will fail to excite.

It enables customers to chat and enrich messaging or voice calls by exchanging images or video simultaneously during calls – but that is already possible with OTT services.

Countries already committed to its implementation will continue to roll it out, but the service will receive a lukewarm reaction from consumers.

As such services do not offer anything new and consumers’ loyalties already lie with OTT players, they get a lukewarm greeting.

In 2013, I expect JOYN to continue to be rolled out across regions, and operators, but will consumers care? Probably not.

Author biog

Mark Windle is the head of marketing at telecoms software innovator, OpenCloud. Mark is an experienced telecoms executive and during his tenure at OpenCloud the company has grown at an impressive rate. This was reflected recently by Deloitte ranking OpenCloud as the third fastest growing telecommunications company in the UK, and the number one fastest growing technology company in Cambridge and East England. This year the company was also listed has been listed in the prestigious Sunday Times Tech Track 100.