Mobility and Telecom Sector

Solutions

Telecom Expense Management with Smart Mobility

While smartphones and tablets are becoming extremely important for mobile workers, one needs to think about growing telecom expenses, since remote workers would add immensely to the regular data and voice bills. Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solutions optimize voice and data plans and make sense of all types of usage patterns. Various companies are enhancing the WiFi experience to make it readily available for all, so that telecom employees who are roaming can actually save on expenses (on both voice and data) without having to pay separately to public WiFi hotspots. Among the billion AT&T connections in US and different Wi-fi hotspots in 2011, there has been a staggering 350% increase in all types of connections since 2010. Mobile apps have become a huge rage among consumers and are of great value to the telecom sector as well. Many approaches have been used for app development. Organizations select the best approach for their needs based on lower developmental costs, the niche target market and overall accessibility of those HTML5 web apps. Some other companies explore the potential for deeper integration with other apps on a platform. Mobile apps for the business sector have largely become a focus for developers who are willing to push the envelope with a new market and monetize mobility services. Once apps are developed using these approaches, they will be delivered and managed on a consistent basis. With respect to telecom, one needs to choose between enterprise server-based apps and hosted services to leverage Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAPs). The enterprise app store is going to support several apps for the telecom industry. Some apps including messaging apps, VoIP-based apps, voice messaging and video calling apps have boosted chances of revenue for those in telecom business.

The Forrester View

According to Forrester Research, the four business drivers for smart mobility are: Need for improved mobility support with expanded use of mobile apps and support for diverse mobile operating systems, especially the top three platforms: iOS, Android and Blackberry. Deployment of apps with prioritization of mobile apps development aligned with business operations. Updated guidance for smartphones and tablets and other mobile services, security, and use of personal devices as per BYOD guidelines. Customers are interested in multichannel access to content and hence mobility with play an important role in social computing thus boosting overall customer engagement. Professionals prefer mobile apps which can regulate their schedule, and lets them access their project calendars using any mobile device. Mobility boosts unified communications and hence their adoption is proliferating across multiple user company organizations. Firms especially with distributed international operations are keen to implement mobility solutions since its implement can justify the need for a wider unified communications implementation across the organization. The implementation of telecom elements like IP telephony, instant messaging devices, unified messaging, and IP conferencing justifies the presence of smart mobility in the organization too.

Emerging Regions of Growth in Revenue in Telecom Necessitates Smart mobility

Many emerging regions within the Asia-Pacific region provide good business grounds for telecommunications growth since the reach extends to more than 3.7 billion people. This growth can be substantiated by mobile industry growth, which would also boost the addition of new 3G and 4G networks and services. The new Analysys Mason report states that the growth in the Industry will be substantial expecting a CAGR of seven percent between 2012 and 2016. The service revenue is expected to grow by 29 percent from $229.7 billion in late 2011 to a whopping $323.7 billion by 2016. The mobile subscriber and revenue forecasts according to the report especially for voice and data services, foretell steady telecommunications industry growth in the coming years. The country-level forecasts for most Asian countries are steady in telecom especially in Bangladesh, China, and India. China and India combined, take more than 68 percent of the region's population, and more than 64 percent of mobile SIMs and more than 75 percent of the total retail telecommunications revenue. China boasts the overall growth and also delivers huge revenue to the telecom sector. China is expected to increase the revenue to nearly $194 billion in 2016.

The Analysys Mason report refers to new trends in the sector: New rollouts of 3G and 4G services will take up bulk of mobile communications amounting to more than 46 percent of sales in the entire APAC region by 2016. Improved broadband coverage and connectivity with better bandwidth capability is expected to roll out soon. Huge demand for Internet access will engulf smartphones and mobile broadband devices. Active mobile penetration rates will increase to 95 percent by 2016, 32% more than 2011 figures. 3G infrastructure will prove to be the most dominant mobile technology and more than 41 percent of active SIMs will use 3G. 4G will have little or no impact during this forecast period since devices and networks need to be churned out at affordable rates. LTE rollout delays will affect LTE penetration in the region though it would be higher in China at 7% and in Malaysia at 8%. Interestingly, India, Indonesia and Thailand are forecasted to grow only by 3 percent in LTE implementation. APAC broadband services will become more diverse, with mobile and fixed wireless taking up more than onethird of the entire broadband connections in APAC regions. Broadband is expected to be the most important revenue source for fixed line and mobile operators.

A Need for New Revenue Sources

The regional decline in mobile ARPU is expected to continue from 20082011. As mobile penetration approaches 100 percent, it is necessary for telecom operators to focus on rural areas in APAC regions and come up with alternative plans to maintain growth in subscriber numbers. Development of sophisticated strategies to drive mobile data revenue is important to retain the prepaid subscriber base which is larger than the others. The market in the region will be dominated by mobile connections and 90 percent of voice connections and predicted to increase by 45 percent by 2016. Most of the mobile voice connectivity growth is expected to be from China and India. To ensure that the subscriber growth remains healthy, by implementing services such as 3G at cost-effective prices so that they remain attractive to the specific population. The report also states that the estimated growth in revenue will churn out nearly $94 billion in new business by 2016.

About Softweb Solutions

Softweb Solutions provide exclusive solutions in Mobile Device Integration for all mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows. Softweb Solutions have served leading mobile device integration requirements with award winning apps. For more information, write to us on info@softwebsolutions.com or visit us at www.softwebsolutions.com