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NOV 2007 ISSUE 36

Rolling the dice of


mobile marketing
Mobile messaging
services: Where next?
Fresh mobile
application technologies
Message+: Give your
message a big plus

Mobile content
is heading for golden time
Seeking new profit space
The present mobile field is replete with business opportunities due to the continual
technical advances and growing popularity of mobile terminals, the greater availability
of bandwidth, and an increasingly mature service industry chain. Spanning various
applications including the Internet, TV, news, advertisements and wireless portals,
mobile services are accelerating fundamental changes that are set to irreversibly alter our
work and personal lives. The rapid launch of commercially viable value-added services
(VAS) in the mobile arena is essential for operators to forge a solid foundation and
Sponsor: establish future profit potential in the current, fiercely competitive mobile market.
Editorial Department of
Moreover, the encroachment of PC-based Internet services and applications in the
Huawei Technologies,
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. mobile field is bringing with it a surge of mobile multimedia service developments
represented by various services: video, digital music, interactive TV, digital publications,
Consultants: content sharing and multimedia Instant Messaging (IM). Practical and professional
Xu Zhijun, Tao Jingwen
applications will enhance efficiency in both our personal and working lives, and services
Che Haiping, Zhan Linkun
set to enjoy comprehensive deployment include mobile payments, location navigation,
Huang Chaowen, Guo Yajun
mobile office, and unified and real-time communications.
Managing Editor:
Gao Xianrui Meanwhile, a user driven trend has emerged with the move towards the seamless
integration and convergence of multiple fields and services in which entertainment,
Editors: marketing and other communication elements will be integrated and connected via
Xue Hua, Xu Ping, Xu Peng
instant communications. This developmental pattern also indicates that mobile data
Liu Zhonglin, Pan Tao, Yao Haifei
services have become a new competitive arena that offers considerable income potential.
Chen Yuhong, Zhou Shumin
Zhou Huajiao, Huang Zhuojian
As a provider of carrier-class end-to-end solutions, Huawei is dedicated to making a
Contributors: long-term and continuous commitment to the mobile data application industry. Huawei
Hu Yong, Gao Zhihua, Mao Yumin is actively exploring, developing and maintaining close and long-term relationships with
Li Hua, Wang Tong, Guo Aiqing customers in terms of a range of key commercial features: technologies, value chain
Liu Shuxiang, Wang Deng constructions, communication service solutions, and IT application convergence. Today,
Deng Jianhua, Li Zicui, Zhang Yafeng over 500 million global mobile users are enjoying the abundant VAS delivered through
Tel: +86 755 28780808 Huawei’s VAS platforms each day.
Fax: +86 755 28356180
We are happy to share with you the advanced concepts and practical applications of
Address: A10, Huawei Industrial Base,
Bantian, Longgang, Shenzhen, mobile media, wireless music, mobile marketing, mobile community, and enterprise
China 518129 services. Together with the large-scale commercialization of 3G services and systems, the
E-mail: HWtech@huawei.com diminutive mobile phone embodies a burgeoning dynamic business platform that belies
its size. Indeed, we can see an increasing number of opportunists spearheading a gold
Publication registration No.:
rush in the mobile data service world.
Yue B No.10148

Copyright © 2007 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.


All Rights Reserved.
No part of this issue may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means without
prior written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

The information contained in this issue is for


Guo Yajun
reference purpose only, and is subject to change Deputy Director of Huawei Application
or withdrawal according to specific customer
requirements and conditions.
and Software Product Marketing Dept.
Mobile content is heading
for golden time

P.09 P.47
Global Digest Main Topic
01 Verizon brings FiOS email to mobile 19 Video messaging: the new heir
phones to fingertip communications
By Bai Heli
02 Virgin Mobile spreads messaging via
3jam SMS 2.0
22 Creating a killer environment via SDP
03 Huawei constructs All-IP network for
By Zhu Haoying
QSC in Germany
Currently, as telecom operators are making more of a
concerted effort to transform themselves into integrated
Expert’s Forum service providers, the service layer is assuming a more
05 User-generated content: important role in this process.

opportunities for wireless operators


By John Delaney 25 International roaming made
easy now
Cover Story By Zhu Jun

09 Mobile content is heading for


golden time
By Zhang Bo How to Operate
As 3G networks are being commercialized on a 28 Digital music fine-tuned to your
large scale worldwide, the small mobile phone ears
platform is also growing rapidly and being
By Wang Jinjun
transformed into a dynamic business stage.
NOV 2007 • ISSUE 36

P.51 P.22 P.41


32 Rolling the dice of mobile 44 Promoting QoS by specialized
marketing optimization
By Deng Jianhua By Zhao Chen

Interview As the traffic from data services continues to increase


rapidly, operators are becoming more concerned about
35 A multi-win blueprint for VAS the end users’ perceived level of satisfaction...
By Li Zicui

Media Insight
Leading Edge
39 Mobile marketing: Getting the 47 Mobile messaging services:
message across
By Gareth Maclachlan
Where next?
By Wang Deng
Mobile marketing is a unique way for brands to
communicate directly with their customers, providing While representing a triumph in terms of its global
access, insight and feedback at the individual level. adoption, SMS to date remains faced with numerous
According to the Mobile Data Association, 41.8 billion questions and problems. For example, what is its
text messages were sent in 2006, with 4.3 billion sent in potential? How will mobile messaging services develop
January alone - a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent. in the future?

Solution 51 Fresh mobile application


technologies
41 Message+: Give your message a By Wang Wei
big plus
By Yin Weihua
GLOBAL DIGEST

Events

Verizon brings FiOS email to mobile phones Emotional attachment to mobile content

U.S. telecom giant, Verizon month. Checking email on other A survey commissioned by replacing a phone.
Communications has added a computers will be available in the mobile content management While 60 percent of subscribers
number of new features to its FiOS form of a free webmail application solutions provider FusionOne and said their handsets contain photos
email service, making it possible for similar to Hotmail. conducted by research firm Market that are difficult or even impossible
customers to check their messages These features are currently Tools reveals a strong consumer to replace in the event of loss, 73
from multiple computers, and from available with Verizon’s FiOS connection to the address books, percent said they retain sensitive text
certain Verizon Wireless cell phones. Internet service, and will eventually ringtones, photos, games and messages, and 31 percent admitted
The mobile email feature will be extended to Verizon DSL, as the related content on their handsets, to sensitive photos they would not
be a downloadable application, telecom giant aims to converge with over half of respondents want others to see.
available though Verizon’s “Get It fixed and wireless communication claiming their social lives would " To d a y w e s e e t w o k e y
Now” store at a cost of USD5 per services. suffer with the loss of their phones. personalization trends: the
According to the FusionOne study, importance for sharing user-
70 percent of subscribers rated generated content and the fashion
Singapore tests mobile payment services
contacts backup as very or extremely statement represented by ringtones
Singaporean operator StarHub EZ-Link cards can be used to pay important, with 30 percent rating and other premium content," said
Mobile is dipping its toes into the for public transport in Singapore as music and picture backup very or FusionOne CEO Richard Onyon.
waters of contactless payment, with well as purchases in some stores by extremely important. However, 67 "Safeguarding and transferring the
plans to allow some subscribers to waving them over a reader. percent of respondents said they do subscriber's mobile phone identity is
use their cell phones to pay for bus Mobile phones with embedded not have their address book backed now significant in maintaining their
rides, subway trips, and purchases NFC chips can be used in the up, and 66 percent admitted to re- peace of mind and loyalty to wireless
at convenience stores. same way as EZ-Link cards. Users entering contacts manually when carriers."
StarHub will offer the payment just wave them over a reader to
service in conjunction with EZ-Link, make payment or pass a subway
a government-owned company turnstile. StarHub and EZ-Link plan Fox News Radio goes mobile
that operates a contactless to announce the start of a public
Fox News Radio announced Fox subscribers may also sign up to
payment service based on cards trial using NFC-equipped phones,
News Radio Mobile, a mobile phone receive financial news content from
with near-field communication allowing up to 1,000 subscribers
news service launched in partnership The Cavuto Money Report. "We
(NFC) technology. to try the service.
with voice messaging firm have taken news content delivery
GotVoice. Promising silent delivery beyond the traditional means,"
T-Mobile calls up Endemol for of Fox News Radio content directly said Bob Finnerty, Fox News Radio
UGC service simply closer to subscribers' mobile voicemail VP. "Creating this new service has
systems, the service offers twice- enabled us to fully connect with
T-Mobile has commissioned videos for a small fee and vote for daily news updates for USD1.49 per our audience at home, at work, or
Endemol UK to create a user- their favorite clips. month. For USD1.99 per month, anywhere in the world."
generated content (UGC) service "Be On TV takes UGC to the
and channel. Mobile UGC provider next level," said Pasa Mustafa,
Yospace is partnering Endemol UK digital content producer at
Telefonica adding Yahoo mobile
and T-Mobile UK in the venture. Endemol UK, calling the new
search
Other collaborations include a service a quality, editorialised
weekly made-for-mobile TV show entertainment experience, Yahoo announced its largest terms were not disclosed, although
and competition events produced "where the best content is easily mobile search deal to date, inking the firms said they will split revenue
by MoMedia. d i s c o v e ra b l e , t h e r u b b i s h i s an agreement with Telefonica generated from mobile advertising
The service will also feature filtered out and users are actively to provide search services to efforts. Telefonica will launch
a video gallery that allows users incentivised to enter talent shows the operator's 100 million-plus Yahoo's oneSearch, email and Flickr
to search for content, browse and get more creative with their subscriber cell phones across photo-sharing services in early
contributors' profiles, download phones." Europe and Latin America. Financial 2008.

 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Data

The New York Times lists real estate on mobile 2.5 billion

broken down by their New York


Times listing ID or by neighborhood, America’s leading cell phone services across the United States,
price or number of bedrooms. The carrier, AT&T Inc., announced focusing in particular on wireless
mobile site also features complete that it was purchasing all of music and video downloads, which
property information, rich graphics Aloha Partners’ 700-MHz wireless have soared in popularity in recent
and mobile-ready features, such as spectrum for USD2.5 billion. quarters.
The New York Times announced click-to-call. Classified advertisers Aloha was the largest buyer “Customer demand for
a new mobile service bringing to who sign up for print-to-mobile of 700-MHz licenses at the FCC’s mobile services, including voice,
handsets listings and information features will also receive a text 2001 and 2003 wireless spectrum data and video, is continually
from the newspaper's Real Estate code next to their newspaper auctions. The licenses being bought increasing,” explained AT&T’s
section. Mobile users may now listing, alerting users to text the by AT&T cover 196 million potential president of corporate strategy
send and receive detailed property listing to their handset to view full customers, including those in major and development, Forrest Miller.
listings regardless of whether their details and photos. The publication urban centers like Los Angeles and “Aloha’s spectrum will enable AT&T
property search began in print, will introduce mobile real estate New York City. to efficiently meet this growing
online, or on the NYT's mobile real alerts delivering information and AT&T will use the additional demand and help our customers
estate site. Searches span more updates based on individual user airwaves to beef up voice and data stay connected to their worlds.”
than 350,000 property listings criteria.

179%
Virgin Mobile spreads messaging via
3jam SMS 2.0 IPTV viewers rose 179% to the DSL Forum shows.
more than 8 million worldwide in The study also found DSL retains
Virgin Mobile USA announced to appear on a U.S. operator deck. the 12 months to June 30, 2007, a large lead as the most popular
the debut of 3jam SMS 2.0, a free 3jam SMS 2.0 enables Virgin Mobile according to the DSL Forum. access technology, accounting
messaging service that enables subscribers to text any number of Asia-Pacific accounts for more for more than 200 million of the
group text communications with contacts simultaneously, making than a quarter of the total, with world’s 313 million broadband
friends and family. According the list of recipients available 2.17 million users, adding nearly 1.1 subs. The global market share of
to Virgin Mobile, the service - to everyone on the mailing list million viewers in the period. France broadband technologies remains
launched in association with SMS - subsequent replies will go to is the world’s biggest IPTV market, largely unchanged from December
services developer 3jam - heralds everyone on the list as well. with 2.55 million customers, 2006, with almost 22% of
the first multi-party text initiative Standard text messaging rates apply. followed by Hong Kong with subscribers using cable, and just
938,000, a survey by Point Topic for over 10% using FTTx.

Google buying mobile social network


service Zingku
40 million
Google continued its march into advertisers and publishers."
the mobile market with its acquisition The Zingku platform enables Subscribers to NTT DoCoMo's for 41 consecutive months, between
of mobile social networking subscribers to create and exchange 3G FOMA service has breached April 2004 and August 2007,
platform Zingku. Terms of the deal images, invitations and "mobile the 40 million mark as of end- according to the most recent data
were not disclosed. According to flyers" with friends via standard S e p t e m b e r, 1 1 m o n t h s a f t e r compiled by the Telecommunications
Google Operating System, Zingku text and photo messaging features. topping 30 million in November Carriers Association, a 90-member
first announced the deal on its The service integrates a user's 2006 and six years since the industry organization in Japan.
website - Google later confirmed the mobile phone with a personalized service's launch in October 2001, DoCoMo is currently enhancing
acquisition, stating "We believe these website, enabling subscribers to according to a company statement. FOMA by introducing more
assets can help build products and "zing" content back and forth FOMA has led all domestic 3G advanced handsets, competitive
features that will benefit our users, between PCs and handsets. services in net subscription growth billing plans and services.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 


GLOBAL DIGEST

Huawei News

Huawei constructs All-IP network for QSC in Germany Bharti Airtel signs USD150 million managed network deal
with Huawei
Berlin, Germany, 28 Aug 2007 generation network.
Huawei announced that it has "Huawei owns advanced
accomplished the installation of its technologies and rich experiences
multi-service control gateways (MSCG) in telecoms market in data
ME60, in the All-IP network of communication field, our cooperation
German leading telecommunications with Huawei on MSCG is a good
provider QSC AG. start. We will join hands with Huawei
The ME60 is a next-generation to provide higher-quality service
multi-service edge solution designed experience for our users," said Mr.
to meet the challenges in the Eivind Dugstad, Managing Director
transformation toward a customer- Plusnet GmbH & Co KG.
centric All-IP architecture network for "We are pleased to see Huawei
Multi-Play applications. The ME60 MSCG devices recognized by leading
offers a perfect QoS mechanism European carriers such as QSC," Colombo, 18 Sep 2007 In its world in the BusinessWeek IT 100
to help QSC deploy services more commented Chen Junhua, president endeavour to offer world-class list 2007, was recently awarded the
quickly at highly reliable levels and of Huawei's Data Communications mobile services and products to license to provide 2G and 3G mobile
achieve intensive service operations. Product Line. "Huawei's Data customers in Sri Lanka, Bharti services in Sri Lanka. Under the
It also provides QSC with a unified Communications Product Line has Airtel Lanka Private Limited, a agreement, Huawei will deploy and
operation platform for services and always been devoted to serving the subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, manage Airtel's core network, Node
applications, reducing the capital needs of carrier markets by offering one of Asia's leading integrated Bs and BTSs and comprehensive end-
and operational expenditure of its its vast technology resources and telecom services companies, to-end 2G/3G network solutions.
broadband network. After a strict extensive network construction announced that it has signed a A c c o r d i n g t o M r. S a n j a y
test and selection process, QSC experience to customers. Huawei managed networks deal for its Nandrajog, Executive Director,
chose Huawei as a partner to build will continue to focus on customers' Sri Lanka operations with Huawei International Operations & Managed
up its All-IP network. demands and help QSC build Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei), a Services, Bharti Airtel, "Bharti Airtel
QSC is one of the leading fixed up operable, maintainable and leader in providing next generation is committed to creating a state-of-
network carriers in Germany. Its manageable broadband networks." telecommunications network the-art mobile network and offering
broadband network is accessible Huawei ME60 was awarded solutions for operators around the world-class and affordable 2G and
nationwide in Germany and offers the 2006 InfoVision Award by the world. The three-year deal is valued 3G services to customers in Sri Lanka.
voice and data services to business International Engineering Consortium at approximately USD150 Million Huawei has established credentials
and private customers. QSC also for its innovative contribution to and includes telecom applications as a global company producing
provides other carriers and Internet the industry. The ME60 has been and software. With the network high quality products and solutions.
service providers with wholesale successfully rolled out across the deal in place, customers in Sri We are delighted to be partnering
services. networks of over 70 carriers in more Lanka can look forward to a host Huawei in this endeavour of ours.
In 2006 QSC has founded Plusnet than 30 countries, such as China of innovative products and services Mr. Max Yang, CEO, Huawei
GmbH & Co. KG. This "network Telecom, Vodafone New Zealand, at an affordable price from Airtel's India said, "We are extremely
manufactory", now a joint venture and provides over 60 million users vast portfolio. proud and happy to partner with
between QSC and TELE2, plans, worldwide with communications The latest custom-built Bharti Airtel who pioneered the
builds and operates QSC's next services. technology from Huawei is expected telecom revolution in India and
to reduce Bharti Airtel's total cost of continues to contribute immensely
ownership (TCO), as well as enhance to the remarkable growth of the
its competitive edge. Specifically, telecom sector. We look forward to
Huawei's Distributed Node B will continuing this strategic partnership
enable Bharti to deploy the network with Bharti Airtel by providing
faster and more cost-effectively. innovative and customer-oriented
Bharti Airtel, rated among the solutions and services including
best performing companies in the wireless solutions."

 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei joins LTE/SAE trial initiative Huawei’s products recognized for superior performance
and technical excellence
Berlin, Germany, 10 Oct, technologies, as a leading global
2007 Huawei announced that it telecommunication solutions Berlin, Germany, 9 Oct
has joined the Long Term Evolution/ supplier. At present, the total number 2007 Huawei announced
System Architecture Evolution (LTE/ of Huawei essential patents in 3GPP that its SmartAX MA5600T
SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI) and will ranks No. 5. Huawei takes part in Series Products and
hold the infrastructure vendor seat the Inter-vendor Interoperability OptiX OSN 6800&3800
of the 2008 LTE/SAE Trial Initiative Test (IOT) work to promote the LTE solutions have won 2007
Steering Board. industry. In 2009, Huawei plans to InfoVision Awards from the
The LTE/SAE Trial Initiative brings provide LTE commercial products, International Engineering
together major telecom vendors based on multi-standard base Consortium (IEC) at
and operators, committed to stations. Huawei also received high Broadband World Forum
driving the development of next- acclaim from the board of LTE/SAE Europe 2007. Huawei
generation, high-performance, Trial Initiative for its performance in received the awards in
mobile broadband networks and 3rd global HSPA and LTE fields. recognition of the products
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) "On behalf of the Steering Board superior performance and
LTE and SAE technologies. of LTE/SAE Trial Initiative, I'd like technical excellence.
Huawei's active in LSTI reflects to welcome Huawei as an official Huawei has been
commitment to contributing member of the group," said the honored with the
significantly to the development Program Officer of LTE/SAE Trial InfoVision Award for the past optical fiber and copper pair access
o f H S PA , H S PA + a n d LT E Initiative. three consecutive years and is the technologies such as GPON and
only vendor that has clinched two VDSL2 in a single platform to help
awards in different categories: the operators undergo network
®
Huawei softswitch certified by CableLabs the SmartAX MA5600T Series transformation. The MA5600T has
Product in the Access Network been successfully deployed in the
Shenzhen, China, 7 Sep 2007 Huawei softswitch, a world-wide Technologies and Services category networks of leading operators in
Huawei announced that it has leader in the telecommunications and the OptiX OSN 6800&3800 France, Netherlands, Spain and
received the CableLabs® Certified® industry, has successfully passed product suite in the Metro Network other countries around the world.
designation for its SoftX3000 softswitch the 63 compulsory test items and Technologies and Services category. The OptiX OSN 6800&3800 is
after passing the PacketCable™ demonstrated compliance with 600 "The IEC's InfoVision Awards Huawei's flexible and manageable
1.0 specification tests for a Call specification requirements. Acting as give tribute to the top broadband WDM transport platform based on
Management Server (CMS). This a CMS, Huawei's softswitch supports technologies in deployment Optical Transport Network (OTN)
certification means that Huawei's the wide range of cable modems today. We're pleased to recognize & Automatically Switched Optical
softswitch has demonstrated and telephone adapters used by Huawei for its SmartAX MA5600T Network (ASON) architecture. The
interoperability with other CableLabs' cable operators to provide advanced Series Product and OptiX OSN system uses advanced technologies
certified devices. voice services. 6800&3800 in the Access Network t h a t h e l p t e l e c o m o p e ra t o r s
Huawei works with the world's Technologies and Services category to build a flexible, IP/Ethernet
leading service providers to build the and Metro Network Technologies friendly and cost efficient future-
largest and most robust All-IP networks and Services," commented IEC proof unified transport network.
in the world and continuously President John Janowiak. This platform helps operators
introduces advanced solutions to Huawei's SmartAX MA5600T to deal with uncertain increases
customers. Huawei softswitch for series is the world's first Terabit in traffic, unknown new service
fixed-line service providers supports FTTx solution that meets operator types, and fast network expansion
more than 91 million ports in over requirements for ultra-high challenges. The OSN 6800&3800
60 countries and regions, including bandwidth necessary for Multi- has been successfully deployed in
the UK, Germany, the USA, Russia, Play. Its Terabit architecture, carrier- the networks of leading operators
Portugal, Spain, United Arab Emirates, class IP services and comprehensive in Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin
Brazil, and China. access features support most American.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 


EXPERT’S FORUM
EXPERT’S FORUM
John Delaney is a Principal Analyst in Ovum’s Consumer Group. The team analyses the consumer market for
data and multimedia services on mobile networks and the Internet, including messaging, information and
entertainment. With nearly 20 years’ experience in the telecoms and IT consulting industry, John has worked
on a wide range of consulting projects and market reports.

User-generated content:
opportunities for wireless
operators
By John Delaney

“I feel pressure, you feel Delaney looks at the implications. users can post, exchange and sell self-
generated material, will grow in
pressure.” Messages for operators popularity. The recent announcement

T
of TheContentMarket.com by Qpass
h i s d e c l a r a t i o n by ‘ Bu s Mobile operators are well-placed to is a good example of this trend. Key to
Un c l e’ , a n i r a t e s e n i o r benefit from the explosion of interest in success here will be successful navigation
citizen caught on camera user-generated content (UGC). It fits well structures, enabling users to find content
in Hong Kong and posted as an extension of the trend to personalize they want with a minimum number of
on YouTube, could also that is already so successful in the mobile page-loads.
apply to media owners. They have been environment, and offers a way to monetize Operators will see some success with
largely caught unawares by the growth of the wealth of ‘user-generated content’ branded offerings for their subscribers only.
such sites as Flickr, YouTube, OhMyNews currently residing (unsent) on mobile This model, successfully demonstrated
and MySpace. Their growth stems from terminals worldwide. by 3 UK with its See Me TV service, will
both better broadband availability and The news is less positive for media work best amongst users with a relatively
the increased scope for tribalism, identity originators and (particularly) aggregators, homogenous subscriber base (for example,
expression and personalisation that user- which will feel pressure as a result of the 3 UK focuses on a younger demographic,
generated content provides. Paul Saffo trend towards user-generated content. with many shared interests served by the
of the marvellously titled Institute of Operators are likely to develop their See Me TV model).
the Future notes that this could herald UGC offerings, and will devote staff and Operator reluctance to both lower the
a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of creativity: a financial resources to establishing these price of carriage and facilitate access to off-
flowering of expressive diversity on the scale services (as opposed to the ‘big name’ portal content will restrict the growth of
of the eponymous proliferation of biological content that has until now been the focus mobile user-generated content. This has
species 530 million years ago. So what does for many operators). proven so successful on the web because
this trend mean for wireless carriers? John Mo b i l e ‘s t o c k e xc h a n g e s’ , w h e re users have been free to browse a variety of

 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

material quickly and easily. with ever cheaper prices. The growth of At the moment, around 10% of heavy
standardized, non-proprietary capacity in users generate 40% of all MMS traffic.
User-generated content - mobile phones encourages both sharing Even in the most advanced markets, the
so what’s new? across other devices and upgrading.
The sense that something is not truly
capability to be able to take pictures with
the mobile phone has not translated into
Plenty of user-generated content experienced until recorded (digitally). revenues for operators. This is partly for
A walk in any city will see any number legacy technological reasons: initially
already exists in the mobile world of camera-phone snaps recording events interoperability was poor, and users needed
There is nothing new in the concept of for the next few days (as opposed to to complete a complex configuration of
user-generated content. Users have long posterity). Recent research conducted by their phones in order to send a message that
been generating ‘content’ (that is, material Nokia indicated that in emerging markets was (all too often) expensive and abortive.
that they or others place a value on) as a very high percentage of users consider However, as these hitches and glitches are
opposed to mere communication that their phone as their primary camera (68% increasingly resolved, it has become clear
can be discarded. However, such has been in India). that this content is either too ephemeral to
the growth of storage and tracker services However, most of this ‘content’ is share or too personal. All of us keep special
that almost anything can be considered destined to languish in the depths of our photos and text messages in our mobile
‘content’. Other trends facilitating the camera phone, and never see the light of phones. These have become intensely
growth in content include: day or, crucially for the mobile operator, personal devices in a way that desktop and
The growth in storage capacity, coupled be transmitted across the mobile network. even laptop computers never will.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 


EXPERT’S FORUM
User-generated content: opportunities for wireless operators

User-generated content has found site. The most popular clips appear at falling over seems perennially popular).
a new lease of life online the top of the browser menu, and 3 also 3 pays cash to the providers of the
adds categories so that customers can content 45 days in arrears via PayPal’s
During the last two years we have seen navigate to different types of clips. Viewer MassPay service, but only when the content
a considerable growth in online social downloads are charged at a minimum of provider has accumulated £10 worth of
networking sites and (often by extension) £0.10 each, of which 10% is returned value. A side benefit for 3 is that it gains
those that feature user-generated content, to the originator of the content, with 3 marketing information about its subscriber
among the most successful of which are pocketing the remainder. By September base - contributors have to register a valid
YouTube, MySpace and Second Life. 2006, 3 had received more than 100,000 email address and PayPal account in order
Mu c h o f t h e v a l u e o f t h i s u s e r - video clips from customers willing to to contribute to See Me TV.
generated content stems from the extent share their recordings, with an average One of the main benefits of the See Me
to which like-minded souls can access of over 1 million downloads per month. TV model is that there are very few other
material and form communities. YouTube It had paid out a total of £250,000 to parties in the value chain to take a cut.
has the critical mass to do this, and users creators of the content, and recorded a Compare this with the model for music
have ‘self-segmented’ to incredible degrees. tidy gross margin of 90%. 3 polices the downloads, where the online store, the
To take one example, an early band of foot content to ensure that no pornographic artist, the record label and the copyright
fetishists has split into those who prefer or violent material is posted - however, royalty holder can all legitimately claim a
tickling, different types of toe, or simply there is some flexibility here, as the slice, as illustrated in the music download
the pure aesthetics of the shape of the foot. most popular categories are pin-up type example in Fig. 1.
Such a diversification in the ‘long tail’ material and slapstick humor (people This has eroded operator margins -
of consumer demand would seem only paradoxically, these were higher in the
possible amongst the vast audiences made days of monochrome screens and simple
possible by the increasing prevalence and ringtones, compared to the complexity
speed of Internet access. However, there is and richness of multimedia content that is
an opportunity for mobile operators. possible now.
The growth of UGC is an excellent
opportunity for mobile operators Drivers for user-generated
We b e l i e v e U G C p r e s e n t s t w o content over mobile
significant opportunities for mobile
o p e r a t o r s . Fi r s t l y, c o n s u m e r s w i l l Handset penetration
increasingly maintain connectivity with
their web community or blog readership The majority of consumers in developed
using their mobile phones. This is markets own terminals with both colour
happening now: Cyworld customers in screens and camera capabilities. We
Korea control the settings and appearance forecast that 967 million ‘feature’ phones
of their avatar via their mobile phones, (defined as ‘voice-centric devices with
and bloggers post ‘facerolls’ to their blog multimedia or other enhanced data
using camera phones. We are also seeing capability’) will be shipped in 2007.
social networking services developed Further, more customers are able to use
specifically for mobile phones, such as these facilities: MMS interoperability
Kink Community on 3 Australia. between operators is now standard rather
Yet there is also scope for the operator than the exception, and most users (while
to manage, host and police user-generated they may not be regular users) have sent
content, providing the community and picture messages and even video messages
search structure required to make it at least once.
appealing. The most successful example so The problem, until now, has been that
far has been developed by 3 UK, with its photo and video messaging has been an
‘See Me TV’ service. occasional function, a special adjunct
Launched in October 2005, See Me to text-based messaging rather than a
TV has been very popular, in part because replacement. However, posting user-
it appeals to a user base in which Big generated content to social networking
Brother and other reality TV type content sites and/or content sites such as 3’s See
is already popular. Users pay £0.50 to Me TV creates the possibility of additional
post a video via MMS to the See Me TV data traffic on the network.

 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

the material is crucial. With a limited


screen and navigational tools, the user
must be more certain that he/she wants
the clip (and therefore knows enough
about it to make the judgement) before
clicking on ‘download’. Some operators
have experienced issues managing this:
the requirement for a mobile portal to
be simple and uncluttered makes the
navigation issue far more difficult than it is
on the web.

Capitalizing on user-generated
Tax DRM, Credit-card Mechanical Record Online store content: operator and vendor
hosting,
bandwidth
transaction copyright
royalty
labels/artist
copyright royalty
gross margin initiatives
Fig.1 Revenue split for music downloads delivered over mobile (Source: Ovum) Operators and vendors have already taken
considerable steps to make the uploading of
Familiarity with user-generated are sidelined, and the operator is reduced to content to the network much easier.
a ‘bit-pipe’ provider. However, such services Handset vendors have worked to make
content
are a useful adjunct to a high-profile licensed the provisioning of MMS much easier:
media model that is taking both time and MMS is now typically configured ‘out of
This is growing, with customers being
money to build. the box’, and picture file sizes are more
made aware of the possibilities of their
This said, YouTube was created by easily customisable to facilitate uploading
mobile terminal for creating user-generated
its two founders after they noticed how at a variety of different network speeds.
content in two ways:
difficult it was to share videos on mobile Handset vendors have partnered with
Much of the po pular content on
phones at a dinner party? Much of the online content aggregators. For example,
YouTube and other popular sites is recorded
opportunity with user-generated content Nokia has partnered with online photo
using the video function on camera phones.
depends on making it as easy as possible portal Flickr to enable users of its Nseries
This in turn provides a trigger to other
to share and view the content that users devices to post content to the web much
viewers to generate similar content.
increasingly want to view. more easily.
User-generated content recorded on
No mobile operator has the user base to Integrated network operators with an
the mobile phone is increasingly featured
promote this level of self-selection in the ISP offering are making it easier to post to a
on major news sites, such as BBC Online,
‘long tail’ of consumer preference. However, user’s blog via either the mobile device or the
and Yahoo? News. This was apparent in
it is easier for some operators than others: fixed Internet. For example, Telstra’s BigBlog
the aftermath of the London bombings
3 UK has a strong appeal to the 16-30 service allows Telstra mobile subscribers to
in July 2005, when both websites posted
segments, and thus a wider base of users to post to the blog directly from their mobile
material captured on the mobile phones of
whom See Me TV would appeal. phone.
the public before their reporters could get
In the second quarter of 2006 we saw a These services are commendable, and
to the scene.
movement towards the ‘stock exchange’ model allow for incremental growth in user-
generated services. However, this is still
Operator opportunities in
in the launch of TheContentMarket.com by
digital commerce platform-provider Qpass. being conducted within constraints
user-generated content This encourages mobile subscribers to defined by the operator.
We b e l i e v e t h a t t h e k e y t o t h e
effectively create their own portal, receiving
a URL, a WAP address and an optional explosion of UGC online has been the
Implications for the operator open architecture created by sites such as
customer ID. The Qpass system enables the
portal YouTube and Flickr. Coupled with faster
creation of short codes with a WAP link to
the ‘store’ and every piece of content the speeds (benefiting both browsing and
UGC does have implications for the
‘provider’ uploads. Qpass also helps with uploading), this has enabled users to rapidly
shape and feel of the operator’s portal.
pricing, with five defined pricing levels for ‘self-segment’ and find and post content
We expect it to become more of a ‘stock
users to choose from. that is compelling to themselves and others.
exchange’ as opposed to a shopping mall.
If we are to see a similar amount of activity
UGC will primarily be organized (as online) Navigation and ‘tagging’ is crucial in the mobile area, operators need to take
by tag and by viewing popularity, and
heed of this requirement for openness.
the role of the operator will be minimal. The extent to which the operator
Potentially, media owners and aggregators guides the user experience and organises Editor: Zhou Huajiao zhouhj@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 


COVER STORY
Mobile content is heading for golden time

 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

MOBILE CONTENT
IS HEADING FOR
GOLDEN TIME
In recent years, the number of megahit after the Internet, and
global mobile subscribers has been the mobile content market will
increasing rapidly and reached 3 become a large industry.
billion in July 2007. As 3G networks Internet magnates, such as
are being commercialized on a large Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, are
scale worldwide, the small mobile fiercely competing for a larger slice
phone platform is also growing of the mobile phone platform pie,
rapidly and being transformed into which is commonly perceived as an
a dynamic business stage. extension of the Internet market.
Countless technical services are Hence, more and more parties are
gradually changing the ways we beginning to explore the mobile
live and work. A good example content market, dreaming of
might be the rich services that are hitting the “mother load” in this
now being offered in the mobile potentially very lucrative “gold
field such as mobile online, mobile mine”. All these phenomena tend
TV, mobile newspaper, mobile to show that the mobile content
advertising, and wireless portal. market has been developing
Undoubtedly, mobile phones are quickly and is beginning to enter
expected to be the next new into a prosperous phase.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 10


COVER STORY
Mobile content is heading for golden time

Rich contents embodied in


small mobile phones
By Zhang Bo

T
he traditional music record industry pure communication tool to an integrated
has been experiencing sales decline media terminal, enabling communications
in recent years. Traditional forms of and entertainment. The great strides and
media, such as newspapers and TV, improvements being made in mobile terminal
are facing big challenges coming performance have in turn lead to a quick rise
from the Internet. Presently, TV programs, of content requirements. As a result, content
electronic newspapers and music are all available services are developing and becoming more
for the latest mobile phone models. Moreover, diverse, and more multimedia, customization,
the latest movies and songs can now be found on and personalization oriented.
official and synchronous release channels online. Statistics data reveals that in 2006, multimedia
The Long Tail Theory represents the newest mobile phones seized 46% of the mobile phone
challenge to the Pareto Principle (or the 80/20 market in China, and became a pioneering force
Rule), and the iPhone has replaced the iPod to that spurred the popularization of the mobile
become the forerunner in the information and Internet and integration of technologies. As a
communication technology (ICT) field. Hence, result, more and more mobile subscribers have
all of these are indicators of the upcoming abandoned their antiquated handsets and now
digitized content era. are wholeheartedly embracing new-generation
As time goes by, it is So, what do contents mean to mobile intelligent mobile terminals. Communications
believed that the Web2.0 operators? What will be the content development are no longer a core requirement; instead,
model will enjoy more trends in the near future? How can one earn subscribers are now showing a greater degree of
money from contents? Being the primary focus in curiosity and expectations to new services and
popularity in the CT field. all of the questions, contents have now become a contents.
As printed on one of vital weapon in a new round of competition. “Due to increasing requirements from
the covers of the Time consumers, new services are exploring larger and
magazine, “Yes, you. You What are user expectations? larger development spaces. As a result, mobile
value-added services have been developing
control the Information The mobile terminal is an important factor quickly and contributing more in terms of
Age. Welcome to your that influences mobile contents. Eight or nine mobile revenues,” according to Chen Jiachun,
years ago, the typical mobile phone was a basic deputy chief of the Telecom Administration
world.” black-and-white handset, providing only voice Bureau under the Ministry of Information
communications and text message services. Four Industry (MII),China. Ms. Chen gave her speech
or five years ago, color-display mobile phones at the Mobile Phone Multimedia Application
appeared on the market, and had such functions Conference, which was held in Beijing on July
as WAP browse, multimedia messaging service 31, 2007. Chen also said that in 2006, the
(MMS) and Java application. At present, mobile revenue from mobile data services represented
phones cover a wide range of diverse models and 21.6% of the overall mobile communications
offer customers a rich variety of functions such as revenue in China. Chen concluded by saying,
HTTP browse, photo-taking, music, streaming “Mobile communications have gradually
media, and large memory storage capacity. transformed from being a communication
Mobile terminals have been experiencing means, to becoming a lifestyle. Mobile phones
substantial changes every five years or so, have been playing a more and more important
and have gradually changed from being a role in our daily lives and work.”

11 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


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The quick development of mobile networks, help to lay a solid foundation for China Mobile to
from 2G, to 2.5G, and then to 3G, has led to two provide mobile media services to subscribers.”
results: bigger bandwidth, and an open value chain. Nowadays, major contents of mobile data would
Both effects are closely related to data services. include the following areas: streaming media, music,
Bigger bandwidth builds up a “highway” for data pictures, games, and E-magazines. The mobile search
transmission, while the open value chain helps to function further strengths people’s perceptions of
generate many specialized service providers and content services. In the long run, the development
content providers (SP/CP). These two effects also and overall distribution of contents should comply
help to guarantee the composition and transmission with the Long Tail Theory. Richer contents will also
of contents. be provided to create more profits. More importantly,
values created by contents will be continuous. So far
New profit source mobile contents have created new profits for many
operators. For example, China Mobile raked in a
In recent years, mobile networks have experienced hefty RMB6.7 billion from its ring back tone (RBT)
a leap, from the 2G era, to the 3G era. High-quality service in 2006, which doubles its RBT revenue of
contents are taking on more importance in the new- RMB3.4 billion for 2005.
generation communications environment. Therefore, In comparison with the Internet, which has
many operators have come to realize that without rich contents, but lacks stable charging channels,
good contents, they will face some serious challenges mobile networks support a powerful mobile
such as the channelization of mobile networks, payment function. For instance, mobile operators
shifting of profits to the application layer, and have complete payment systems and management
gradual losses of their existing advantages. capabilities, which give them a greater advantage in
The importance of contents is also proven by terms of content charging.
the telecom transformation wave that is currently In the industry chain, content cooperation is
sweeping across the globe. After transforming from more easy and simple than service cooperation, and
the traditional communications network field to the contents are also more easily managed and can create
integrated information service field, operators are greater values. After converging contents, an operator
now finding that the development of contents are can develop content-based value-added applications.
the best measure for success, as well as a new source Moreover, contents can also be frequently reused
of profits in a new and burgeoning market. and shared. This especially benefits multinational
In June 2006, China Mobile bought 19.9% operators who have multiple subnets, purchase
shares of Phoenix TV from Star Group Limited contents in countries or areas with low costs, and
with USD164 million, making it the second largest share contents on all their subnets. By doing so, these
shareholder of Phoenix TV. With this purchase, operators are able to reap greater content profits.
China Mobile now has the priority and privilege of
using Phoenix TV’s contents on its radio platform. Choose a profit mode
According to Wang Jianzhou, CEO of China
Mobile, “Strategic cooperation with Phoenix TV, There are currently many successful profit models
News Corporation, and Star Group Limited, will for content services, which offer a great deal of

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 12


COVER STORY
Mobile content is heading for golden time

inspiration for operators from several different aspects. is also useful for operators who deploy content
services and application layers in the telecom field.
Web2.0 model: ‘I set up a stage; you perform’ Web2.0 has been popular for a long time
and has been applied on a large scale in the
In the Web2.0 model, subscribers are provided with Internet. However, it is still not widely used in the
a stage, where they can express what is on their minds communications field. Needless to say, without good
and show off their talents. YouTube provides a good contents, a service system is soulless. The Web2.0
example of how profitable this type of model can be. model makes consumers composers, promotes
Many people first learned about YouTube after interactions between users and services, and creates
it was purchased by Google for USD1.65 billion some content sources.
last October. However, YouTube had already gained Nevertheless, content sources will remain a
considerable popularity in video circles before problem for operators in the long run. The process
that time. Therefore, it’s quite understandable of finding content sources is actually a process
why Google was interested in utilizing the video of finding business patterns. Compared with IT,
ser vice of YouTube as the next growth point content technologies (CT) are still somewhat
in network ser vices. Moreover, YouTube was underdeveloped. For instance, many preset CT
recognized for its highly loyal users. Therefore, the systems, especially customer-oriented systems,
successful experiences of YouTube were used as a only focus on services and tend to have a one-way
reference point for constructing the Web2.0-based marketing approach. Despite the seemingly attractive
architecture. system interfaces, however, it still has the Web1.0
Since its inception, YouTube has been specifically model system architecture.
oriented to cater to people’s natural desire for self- As time goes by, it is believed that the Web2.0
expression and the enjoyment derived from sharing model will enjoy more popularity in the CT field. As
their happy moments with others. Being content printed on one of the covers of the Time magazine,
consumers, end users also become content “Yes, you. You control the Information Age.
producers in this type of space context. In Welcome to your world.”
this way, YouTube is also able to acquire
sufficient content sources. Soft terminal: the “last mile” of the value chain
To date, YouTube has approximately
150 million subscribers. YouTube’s When one mentions iTune, iPod also easily
experience shows that the Web2.0 comes to mind, which many people have dubbed
model should be just as successful as a miracle created by Apple. However, Apple
in terms of content-centered has created more miracles than just the iPod. For
Internet services. YouTube’s instance, its iTunes online music store is currently
successful experience the third-biggest overall music retailer in the

13 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

United States, after Wal-Mart and Best Buy, content operations.


enjoying a 9.8% share of total music sales.
Recently, Apple released its iPhone, which is Rich media: the network release
quickly becoming another hit in the industry. platform and propagation channel
The iPhone integrates iTune and extends the
digital music wave from the Internet to radio Some experts believe that future destinations
communications, which is another classical for content services will be linked to the rich
case of how IT integrates CT. The iTune serves media network release platform and propagation
not only as an example we should study, but it channels.
should also be perceived as a strong competitor Rich media is a method of propagating
for operators in terms of content services. animation, voice, video and interactive
In content service operations, perhaps the information. It can be used in various network
most successful experience of iTune is that the services such as Website design, email, banner,
iPod/iPhone, iTune and CPs, combine to form button, pop-up advertisement, and interstitial
a short value chain, which is under the control advertisements.
of Apple and ensures good service experiences. As a digitized media era draws nearer, people
Compared with content services in the CT field, will more frequently acquire contents from
iTune provides good cooperation with terminals. the network. Many people are currently of the
For instance, it provides iPod users with PC opinion that the international Internet is the
soft terminals, while the iPhone integrates a soft “coolest” source for news and sports, while
terminal on the mobile phone. newspapers are quickly becoming outmoded.
The CT field has experienced weak control Music CD companies, who once sued search
on terminals, and terminals are commonly seen engines over intellectual property rights, now
as a disadvantage by most operators. However, openly admit that the challenges they are facing
operators do have stronger charging channels. with are not coming from Internet companies, Terminals are closely
As is well known, mobile data services are quite but rather from young consumers who rely more related with content
developed in places like Japan and South Korea and more on the network. services. In fact, good
because operators in these two countries have full The rich media network release platform and
control of terminals, and all mobile terminals of propagation channels can be seen as a trend in service experiences
operators in these countries also provide the same this circumstance. They are now seen as a target depend on strong
reference capabilities. by most content service operators, and will supports from terminals;
It should be of some concern that Blackberry, be their next destination after certain service
Skype and Google have mature service systems operations and developments occur.
this is the biggest
and are developing their own terminals, in order At present, some operators are cooperating difference between
to set up and control a value chain. For example, with media companies and have become the sole content services and
Google has already developed a prototype mobile distributors of contents for these companies. The
phone which is expected to be released sometime relationship between traditional CD sales points
voice services.
next year. Furthermore, Google also plans to and cinemas, and the network release system,
provide consumers with free radio services by is somewhat like the relationship between Wal-
binding advertisements in the search engine, Mart and eBay. Whatever is bought in Wal-Mart
Email, and browser software of the mobile can also be found on eBay, but not vice versa.
phone. Is it possible to set up a Website for virtual
Terminals are closely related with content electronic contents? Yes, it is possible. Like eBay,
services. In fact, good service experiences depend we can build up a huge-capacity supermarket
on strong supports from terminals; this is the at low costs, which sells all kinds of digitized
biggest difference between content services products. For instance, in this type of electronic
and voice services. There are many ways of supermarket, operators can sell their contents,
controlling terminals, and the soft terminal is and grassroots content composers can also
commonly seen as a necessary device. The soft sell their products. Furthermore, the layout of
terminal also sets in a very strategic position in all digitized commodities fully complies with
terms future service deployment and is necessary the Long Tail Theory. Thus, by using search
for operators in attracting customers, improving technologies, ordinary users can find all the
user experiences, and strengthening their own commodities they are looking for, with merely a
competitiveness. Therefore, the soft terminal is touch of their finger, and at the fastest possible
commonly acknowledged as the “last mile” in speed.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 14


COVER STORY
Mobile content is heading for golden time

China Mobile’s Treasure Box


By Yang Juanhua & Zong Runzhe

E
arly in the morning, John goes added service that was released by China access from the channels and have more
to work as usual by metro. Mobile in 2003. Mobile subscribers can enjoyable experiences in the process.
His mobile phone is playing access the Treasure Box by way of the
a new song by Christina general packet radio service (GPRS) mode Flexible charging policies
Aguilera which he has recently and enjoy various services similar to those To encourage subscribers to use the
downloaded. While listening to the music provided on the Internet. For example, a Treasure Box, China Mobile made great
through his mobile phone earplugs, John is subscriber can use his or her mobile phone efforts to come up with some attractive
also reading today’s electronic news special to download various games, cartoons and charging policies. One singular advantage
which he also habitually downloads. novels. A subscriber is also provided with is that China Mobile’s present general
A t n o o n , Jo h n d i n e s w i t h s o m e many online applications such as, online download platform is able to support
colleagues, with whom he makes an games, Email, securities, and information complicated charging modes. For example,
appointment to watch the latest hit queries. By offering these kinds of rich the platform can distinguish between
film Transformers that evening. Being functions, the Treasure Box is able to make different types of services according to
a huge fan of the Transformers, John a subscriber’s life much more interesting the access codes of SPs, and charge the
has downloaded a whole set of different and colorful through mobile phone. services by contents based on the universal
wallpaper, themes, and movie trailers In order to meet subscribers’ diversified resource locator (URL), or charge by flows
from the official online movie website. requirements for download contents and based on the access traffic.
He has also found the reservation hotline offer subscribers new service experiences, Besides these singular charging modes,
and timetable of a theater located close to China Mobile adopted a new general China Mobile also offers flexible charge
where he lives from a fashion magazine download platform to optimize the combinations such as the multi-service
downloaded through the Treasure Box on Treasure Box service. Major concerns package, monthly rent charge, and capped
his mobile phone. of China Mobile regarding Treasure charge. A rich collection of discounts
On his way to the theater, John opens Box constructions primary focused on are also available, including discounts by
the Treasure Box and accesses the “Three such issues as content organization and traffic, discounts for special time segments,
Kingdoms” online game. He is quite crazy management, flexible charging policies, and discounts for holidays.
about this latest battle game, which is a and improvement of mobile terminal
good way to kill time before he reaches the capabilities. Improvement of mobile terminal
theater. capabilities
After watching the movie, John receives Content organization and
a sweetheart greeting card from his management Mobile terminals remain a persistent
girlfriend. The cute cartoon and characters barrier that has prevented the further
on the electronic card make him chuckle China Mobile adhered to a customer- development of mobile value-added
a little. He immediately downloads an centered approach in regard to content services. China Mobile in association with
animated greeting card and sends a sweet operations and divided contents into four multiple terminal vendors was able to
kiss to his girlfriend. major categories: games, entertainment, launch its own customized mobile phone.
All of the services that John has been business, and life. The four categories With China Mobile’s customized mobile
using all day are provided by China or channels also covered a wide range of phone, a subscriber can conveniently
Mobile’s Treasure Box. contents which included various items use built-in mobile services and brand
such as mobile shopping, games and services, even if the subscriber is not
China Mobile’s Treasure entertainment, mobile chatting, navigation
service, map query, news, mobile securities,
familiar with these types of settings. The
customized mobile phone has in turn
Box and mobile office. These allowed China led to some breakthroughs in mobile
Mobile’s subscribers to easily locate and services. It effectively integrates mobile
Treasure Box is a mobile data value- choose the type of contents they wished to communications services, value-added

15 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

services and the terminal, and brings Service accesses in various modes can make it much easier for subscribers to
mobile services closer to subscribers. quickly locate target contents.
In early 2007, China Mobile The CDP solution provides multiple
introduced the content search engine to service access paths and mainstream Powerful content management
its general download platform, enabling downloads modes, so that end users can capabilities
end users to search and download needed have pleasant service experiences. Each
subscriber can access services at any time The CDP solution offers unified
contents through the mobile phone portal.
and any place according to his or her content management capabilities, which
The content search engine virtually put an
particular needs. The CDP also enables include such capabilities as content
end to the vicious cycle of the value chain
the offline portal by using soft terminals, management, search, protection,
where ranking determines profits and
which creates a couple of new experiences adaptation, marketing, and filtering.
profits determine ranking, and helped to
such as safe and accelerated downloading. Moreover, the content management system
facilitate the development of the content
Whenever the subscriber is not online, implements management of the lifecycle
market. Hence, by using this engine,
the offline portal also provides channel process of contents. CPs and operators
subscribers can now easily find and obtain
subscription, introductions to latest can submit and manage contents through
high-quality contents.
contents, and content browse functions. It the self-service portal, which is provided
allows the subscriber to just log in online by the system. In addition, the content
CDP, the enabler for the whenever he or she wishes to order or management system can be interconnected
Treasure Box download certain contents. with the networks supporting third-
party management systems through open
Personalized content favorites interfaces. Hence, such interconnections
The success of China Mobile’s Treasure make it easier for the operator to reuse
Box can be directly attributed to its content The CDP solution provides subscribers existing content sources and make content
delivery platform (CDP) solution which with a Favorites folder for personalized sources more diversified, public and long
was provided by Huawei, and enables content. A subscriber can use the lasting.
efficient, powerful content distribution, folder to collect the ordered or favorite In the CDP solution, the digital right
operations and management. More than contents. The folder records all content management (DRM) system protects
providing just a content release platform, consumptions and provides shortcut the copyright of all media contents free
this end-to-end solution covers content keys for future operations such as order from terminal restrictions. The content
sources, portal, content management, cancellations, recommendations, and adaptation system can automatically adjust
marketing and charging, and helps facilitate donations. In regard to the development presentation portals in various forms
the fast provision of services. Huawei’s of Internet portals, blogs, billboards and according to the subscriber terminals,
CDP solution adopts mobile contents as its content search are adopted in the CDP and thus guarantees the very best
core and primarily focuses on infotainment solution. Furthermore, subscribers can experiences. In addition, the subscriber
(information and entertainment) contents. use blogs to create, upload, send and store behavior analysis system classifies
Moreover, it also offers end-to-end solution content. Billboards are used to introduce subscribers into different groups on the
for integrated content downloads. See Fig. 1 the latest trends and hotspots in content basis of their subscription information
for more information. download. And finally, content search and consumption behavior. As a result,
the operator can more accurately locate
potential subscribers. Further, the business
Application SP 1 SP 2 SP 3 Service Service Support marketing system supports subscribers
A B
layer layer and recommends that they recommend
Integrated data environment of application Maintenance contents to their friends and relatives, thus
allowing contents to be propagated among
CAS DRM Portal/SSO User profile management subscriber groups.
Charging
Mobile content China Mobile’s Treasure Box offers its
delivery layer Content search User segment CMS subscribers a number of new and exciting
Report
experiences in conjunction with their
Integrated access environment for application mobile life. Huawei, a co-designer of the
OAM Treasure Box, has helped many operators
Service enabler Streaming WAP GW MMSC Download successfully exploring the mobile content
download market, and in the process has
Terminal accumulated many rich and rewarding
software
experiences. Unquestionably, Huawei’s CDP
Fig.1 Logical structure of Huawei’s CDP solution solution has become a solid foundation for
mobile content operations.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 16


COVER STORY
Mobile content is heading for golden time

A new lease of mobile life

With a mobile phone in your hand, you are offered many opportunities that can make life
much more fun and exciting.
By Wang Xinjun

N
ew technologies are world. Since the release of the mobile comprises the mobile newspaper, mobile
constantly changing our newspaper service by numerous operators, broadcasting, mobile TV, as well as mobile
everyday lives. Based many customers have subscribed to this video, will become the “fifth media”, after
on the developments service, because of the convenience and newspapers, broadcasting, TV and the
occurring in mobile new experiences it offers. For instance, Internet.
communication technologies and value- on any given day, they can receive mobile So, why is the mobile newspaper service
added services, and due to the convenience newspapers sent through MMS messages. so popular? Compared with traditional
of mobile phones, mobile value-added Since its release, China Mobile’s mobile newspapers, the mobile newspaper features
services are gradually changing the way we newspaper has won high acclaim and many new advantages. For instance, it
live, work and entertain ourselves. recognition from subscribers. caters to subscribers’ reading habits and
The mobile newspaper is a combination extended requirements, thus ensuring
Mobile newspaper of mobile value-added ser vices and more pleasant experiences. It also follows
traditional media. News contents on the general patterns of newspapers and
Wherever you are, whether you are paper media are sent to subscribers’ provides a rich variety of contents.
riding in a bus or setting on a bench MMS mobile phones by way of a radio Moreover, it is fast and convenient, and
by the seaside, you can always log on technical platform, so that subscribers can be read at any time, day or night.
to the mobile Internet and read mobile can conveniently read newspapers on Furthermore, it allows subscribers to break
newspapers to become informed about their mobile phones. Experts believe that free from the cumbersome restrictions
ever ything that is happening in the the mobile phone media, which largely that come with traditional paper media.

17 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Subscribers can also send their opinions to like, Japan and the United States. One context, whether it be a pretty smiling face
the mobile newspaper platform if they wish of the many advantages of using mobile or some kind of ugly behavior.
to interact with editors or other readers. advertising for operators is that each Improvements in the resolution of
Hence, this is dramatically changing the inquiry message from a subscriber can camera phones have somehow stimulated
traditional way in which information lead to a lot of feedback information from the development of moblogging.
has been transferred, and the process sellers. This is one of the reasons that According to some survey data, among
is bringing about a more interactive, prompted mega-companies like AT&T, all mobile phones shipped in 2006, 49%
humanistic form of communication. Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless to were camera phones. Japan represents the
work out mobile advertising strategies. biggest market for camera phones, with
Mobile advertising camera phones taking up 80% of the
Moblog market share.
Jissien recently found that the
advertising messages she received on her If your mobile phone has a camera, SMS attachment
mobile phone were quite interesting. Last supports mobile Internet, and can send
week, when she wanted to find a new Emails, then you can do many new and The SMS delivers the messages we
apartment, she used her mobile phone to exciting things. The convenience that write to our friends and colleagues. Most
search for one on some WAP websites, these new modern wonders now offer to of us are very familiar with the SMS
but in the end failed to find a suitable hundreds and thousands of individuals service. Jack, who is a senior high student,
apartment. However, after a couple of just like you, have been provided by way likes chatting with friends through short
days, she received some apartment-for- of new technologies. Furthermore, newer messages. His friends always send back
rent messages and found an apartment technologies now coming onto the market some humorous contents that tickle him
she liked very much. After moving to the allow you to be able to push away your and make him laugh. However, one day,
new apartment, Jissien remembered those computer keyboard, leave your desk, and Jack received a very strange message,
messages and thought they must have record and “blog” your life by using your which said, “Hi, Jack, your friend David
been sent by God. However, the messages mobile phone. Arousing much curiosity greets you and sends you a song @RBT --
were more down to earth, and were merely and imagination, moblog now comes to Flower@.” Soon Jack’s mobile phone began
mobile advertisements from the operator us, but its strengths and potentialities are to ring. It was from David. Jack picked up
she was using. still unknown and unpredictable. his mobile phone and heard a soft female
It has now become clear to most The Internet, which comprises tens of voice say, “Jack, your friend David sends
mobile operators that mobile advertising millions of PC terminals, has completely you a new song, ‘Flower’. Please try it out.
can generate huge profits for them. Like changed the world in which we live. So, If you like it, then press 1 to set it as your
the traditional voice service, mobile what will the world created by the mobile RBT.” Wow, Jack was greatly surprised:
advertising has now become an important Internet supporting billions of mobile How was David able to do this?
profit source. Hence, operators are paying phones be like? How will moblog influence In fact, this turns out to be the SMS
more and more attention to subscriber and change the Internet? Can moblog attachment service, which attaches music,
requirements and are trying to offer their serve as a driving force for the prosperity of RBT, WAP, “color-e”, and media contents
subscribers what they really want. MMS? So far weblog has become the latest to ordinary text messages. The SMS
According to Zhou Yi, who is head of the fashion in the Internet world. Thus, one attachment service has made use of the
Office of Olympic Affairs for China Mobile, naturally wonders whether or not moblog inherit strengths of traditional SMS and
China Mobile was given an advertising will be able to reconstruct the blogsphere? introduced new service modes. It offers such
qualification from the State Administration Whatever the answers will be, moblog has services as videos, sounds, texts and pictures
for Industry & Commerce July 2007, and certainly increased the network utilization in the simple, mature and mass end-to-
will officially operate mobile advertising of mobile operators and helped to generate end SMS, and can also improve the ARPU
soon. This means that China Mobile huge profits. when sending greetings, funny messages,
can offer their mobile adverting service “Blog is a record of your surfing the and music messages. Furthermore, since it
to enterprises and advertisers by sending Internet, while moblog is a record of is based on the mature message-forwarding
SMS messages, MMS messages, and when travels in the world,” said columnist Justin habits of subscribers, the service can be
subscribers are downloading games. Hall. When surfing the Internet and propagated quickly. Another advantage is
“I always hear about the cellphone as finding something interesting, you can that it is very easy and simple to use the
being the third screen (after TV and PC), create a link on your blog page and make SMS attachment service. For instance,
but I really think of it as being the first,” comments. This is the so-called “knowledge different icons can be used to indicate
said Bob Greenberg, Chief Executive management”, or “information integration” different contents such as RBT, text and
of R/GA. He continued by saying, “It’s function of blogging. When you become a WAP. These contents can then be inserted
with me all the time.” At present, mobile moblogger, what you present will be people anywhere in the message text.
advertising is developing quickly in places and things around you in an everyday Editor: Xu Peng xupeng@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 18


MAIN TOPIC
Video messaging: the new heir to fingertip communications

Video The new heir


messaging to fingertip
communications
If you were told 10 years ago that text messages
costing just RMB0.1 each would spearhead a huge
market worth several billion RMB in less than a decade,
you might have greeted this with skepticism. However,
the last five years has witnessed an explosive growth in
value-added services, creating a fingertip communications
era in which SMS is enjoying an unrivalled dominance.
The huge potential of today’s mobile data service
market reveals that SMS is far from meeting customer
requirements, and that video messaging is set to
emerge as the logical and welcome heir to the fingertip
communication era.
By Bai Heli

Application scenes: the message gives you previews and schedules


for the latest movies, and even provides
applications including point-to-point messages,
news, work, advertisements, and clubs.
brilliant future introductions regarding theatre facilities,
Service development:

W
arousing your little desire of watching a
hile waiting for the bus movie at night.
in the morning, you are Your favorite video clips, however, are a new profit center
overjoyed to find that the videos of your baby that you regularly
day’s video news tailored share with friends and family by dialing a Currently, people’s understanding
to your specific interests specific number and pointing your phone of video messaging is limited and it is
is sent to your phone. After arriving at the at your baby. The video message is then broadly viewed as a simple point-to-
office, you are greeted by a video notice from automatically uploaded to your “Baby” point messaging service. While possessing
the office system’s smiling electronic secretary blog and to your friends’ and relatives’ the same service quality as SMS, video
who outlines your agenda. At noon, you mobile phones. m e s s a g i n g p r ov i d e s r i c h e r c o n t e n t
receive a video invitation from your friend, As a means of message transfer, video capabilities and media features, and
inviting you to his wedding. After work, you messaging can be flexibly oriented to elevates content expression, user awareness
receive a video message from a movie club, individuals, communities and enterprises, and sending/receiving convenience, thus
in which you are a senior member. That and applied to a host of video messaging evolving simple point-to-point messaging

19 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

into a more holistic messaging media. bringing video messaging obvious media features.
This evolution comprises three phases: point- Currently available video sharing websites such as
to-point message transfer, multi-body information Youtube are becoming increasingly popular - as of
service, and video messaging media. 29 June 2007, for example, the number of uploads
to Youtube reached more than 60,000 per day,
Point-to-point message transfer with daily playback exceeding 100 million. If video
The inception of video messaging will see its enthusiasts discover they can easily share videos via
acceptance as a point-to-point message transfer mobile phones, the potential is staggering.
tool. An unconnected call automatically accesses the New services during this phase will include
video messaging system, and a personalized video video magazines, video themed communities,
navigator prompt will allow a caller to record and regional video blogs and podcasts, and interactive
view a new video message. This service is most useful advertisements. Profits in the phase will mainly
when called users are outside their given service areas derive from increased message traffic, usage fees for
or are unable to take calls; subsequent messages are various community and information services, and
transferred conveniently, rapidly and securely. fees charged to advertisers and enterprises.
This early phase mainly aims to satisfy basic user In a similar manner to SMS, video messaging can
requirements and facilitate user acceptance and meet users’ basic communication requirements but
familiarity in terms of video communication and can also provide a much richer experience, and thus
information sharing. Service modes encompass point deliver operators greater profits.
to point video messaging, video messages for call
completion and video emails. The platform features for
After the adoption of video message services, calls
will be automatically forwarded to a video message
operational success
system to be retrieved later should a called user be To satisfy user requirements for messaging services
powered off or lack connectivity due to signal loss. and to enable video message support, a suitable
After receiving video messages users are likely to return platform requires construction with three inherent
calls. This elevates ARPU and lengthens call duration, features: network independence, loose coupling
thus increasing operators’ voice service revenues. architecture and multi-media processing capabilities.
Video messaging might be the key means maximize
profit margins, given that an estimated 13% of video Network independence
messages result in at least two related calls.
Operator profits during this phase will mainly Network independence can bring unified service
derive from charges for message sending, completed experiences to end users and facilitate routine
calls, and related communications expenses from communications. For operators, it also lays a foundation
video message communication. for trans-platform deployment, access network
integration, and subsequent network evolution.
Multi-body information service The system as a whole needs to be compatible
with network elements (NEs) across various
The “multi-body” information service phase networks that employ different protocols. A unified,
provides a communication platform designed not just open access environment on the system interface
for individual users, but for enterprises, traditional layer is required to realize multi-network access and
media organizations and advertisers, each of whom support new NEs’ smooth expansion capabilities.
will naturally explore the application range of video Access compatibility with different NEs stimulates a
messaging. Broader social involvement will expand network-independent system that can cater to more
the range of communications from singular to group network scales and environments, meaning users can
communications, and the new service modes arising will access a network through voice calls, WAP and WEB.
form an additional revenue stream for operators. Thus, The system supporting both 2G/2.5G/2.75G/3G
besides video messages between users, more profits and IP multimedia system (IMS) architecture can be
in this phase will derive from usage fees for content- smoothly evolved in the future, thus providing long-
specific video messages (such as news), advertisements, term profit potential for operators.
enterprise video messaging applications, etc.
Loose coupling architecture
Video messaging media
On the one hand, the video messaging platform
This phase will witness the integration of video should unify message storage and management
messaging with traditional and Internet media, mechanisms for user PO data, events, and

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 20


MAIN TOPIC
Video messaging: the new heir to fingertip communications

applications. Modules are connected through new profit points for operators.
loose coupling architecture, which ensures overall Huawei has to date deployed its video messaging
efficiency, high reliability, flexible deployment, and service on China Mobile’s 3G network. Huawei’s
third-party system integration capabilities. holistic understanding of video messaging operations
On the other hand, personal and other types and development has culminated in a flexible
of users increasingly favor customization in terms networking scheme for China Mobile that features
of personalized interfaces, application rules, and centralized deployment in the early phase and successive
prompt modes. The continuous extension in service distributed expansion to meet service development
types necessitates flexible control when receiving, during latter phases. Supporting smooth IMS evolution,
storing, distributing and processing information. its video messaging system can be accessed onto 3G,
Loose coupling architecture optimizes all core service 2G/2.5G networks, China Mobile’s IP network, and
subsystems and, consequently, the system can satisfy the networks of other operators.
user and service requirements in terms of interfaces, Huawei has also provided a multitude of message
processing capabilities, and processing procedures. notification and message viewing measures, as well
as video navigation information and personalized
Multi-media processing capabilities settings for China Mobile’s subscribers. The video
To meet flexible usage and service evolution messaging platform can notify users about incoming
requirements, the video messaging platform should messages through short messages and WAP Push
provide multi-media processing capabilities that messages. Users can receive, view and manage video
can handle various media types and conduct media messages through WAP, Web and video phone modes,
resource format conversion, adaptation, element and meanwhile video content can be played via PS
abstraction and integration. The ability to adapt or CS domain. In this way, the system has fewer user
media content to terminals according to terminal terminal requirements and can cover greater number
features are integral to the video era, as increasing of subscribers across different networks.
numbers of formats and contents originate from Among diversified video services, video messaging
various terminals and networks. is easy to use and convenient to access, and satisfies
Based on its rich marketing experience and proven basic user communication requirements. As video
R&D capabilities, Huawei’s video messaging system services enjoy popularization across wireless networks
is fully capable of providing the mentioned key and as Internet and wireless networks integrate,
features. The system enables an array of rich service video messaging will bring unparalleled success to
functions including built-in video message, video operators in the context of a single service. Moreover,
mailbox, video forwarding, and voice message that it can be utilized to enable basic video services and
can fully satisfy the requirements of individual users, support various convergent video services, which
enterprises, organizations, and advertisers. Based on will in turn open up broader markets and generate
powerful system management functions and open greater profits. As the heir to SMS, video messaging
system architecture, the Huawei system can reduce is set to become the golden child in the new era of
TCO and facilitate smooth expansion and new fingertip communications.
service development capabilities. Thus, it establishes Editor: Chen Yuhong chyhong@huawei.com

21 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Currently, as telecom operators are


making
more of a concerted effort to tra
nsform
th em se lv es in to in te gr at ed se
rv ic e
providers, the service layer is assum
ing a
more important role in this process
.

Creating a killer By Zhu Haoying

environment via SDP


NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 22
MAIN TOPIC
Creating a killer environment via SDP

Driven by the these various factors have tended to boost


the development of SDP.
helps create a controlled, manageable
service opening environment.
convergence trend The internal element refers to the • Content Delivery domain covers the

I
optimizations of the operator’s operation complete lifecycle of contents and
n recent years, the telecom
process, especially in terms of decreasing provides the operator and third-party
industry has witnessed continuous
investment costs and operation content providers with content-related
convergence of industries,
expenditures (OPEX), as well as smooth public services, including the content
emergence of new business patterns,
network evolution. Such optimizations management system (CMS), digital
wider-range cooperation, and
have stimulated the introduction and right management (DRM), transcoding
steady increase in intense competition. As
development of SDP, the primary function and storage.
a result of these various factors, the service
of which is to improve the competitiveness • Portal domain is specifically oriented
layer of each telecom network now faces
of the operator. to end users and provides consistent
many new requirements and challenges
Driven by the convergence trend in the service experiences and unified service
in terms of functions, architecture and
industry, more and more telecom value- ingress.
openness.
added services are now being introduced. • Ser vice Creation and Execution
In order to meet new service
For each operator, the key to success is not Environment is an execution
requirements and to help tackle new
a single “killer” service, but rather, a “killer environment for operators’ services.
challenges, the industry has introduced a
environment” that covers the complete It comprises various types of
service delivery platform (SDP) concept.
service lifecycle and supports fast service application ser vers and a ser vice
Despite the fact that presently there
innovations. creation environment, which provides
is no standard definition or form for
this concept, it is generally understood rich service development tools, for
that SDP is a horizontal service frame Horizontal architecture example, the integrated development
environment (IDE), software
oriented to various networks, supporting
different applications, and providing
supports continuous development kit (SDK) or application
service deliveries to users, which includes developments programming interface (API), and
such aspects as, service creation, service business templates.
deployment and service usage. In The horizontal architecture of SDP can • Public Service Management domain
orientation to a specific operator, it can also facilitate the operator to provide more covers strategy execution, terminal
be customized to meet specific network innovative services more quickly, hence information management and
conditions. In general, SDP involves the increasing business revenue and reducing data federation. It provides public
definitions of frame function domains capital expenditures (CAPEX) and OPEX. functions that support various value-
and interfaces, parts and solutions, Due to such significant functions, SDP added services, including charging,
consulting, as well as project integration is positioned as a core solution on the authentication and authorization, service
and implementation. service layer. Based upon the particular release, service subscription, third-
The force that drives the generation of network and service conditions of different party management, user management,
SDP, which is also a problem that SDP operators, the SDP solution can also be service provision, terminal information
needs to resolve, can be divided into two flexibly customized. Huawei has designed management, and marketing supports.
elements, the internal element and the reference architecture for SDP to facilitate This domain is a vital part for the
external element. the customization of the SDP solution. operator in building a manageable
The external element is the need for The SDP reference architecture service network.
fast and efficient support for new service comprises the following functional In physically applying the reference
development and deployment, as well domains: architecture, especially for operators
as fast responses to constantly changing • Ser vice Enablers include various with networks located in big countries
service requirements. For each telecom communication enablers, content and for multinational operators, four
operator, a key strategy in competitions enablers, such as servers, and support major functional domains, namely the
is the innovation of value-added services, enablers, such as Presence. They service enabler domain, service data
which can enhance the competitiveness combine to form the capability layer in domain, content management domain
in differentiated operations and avoid the SDP architecture. and service management domain, can be
homogeneous competitions, hence, • Capacity Adaptation and Openness used to form corresponding distributed
more effectively attracting and retaining Control domain encapsulates network network architecture. Furthermore,
customers. To quickly provide innovative and enabler functions and provides corresponding supporting mechanisms,
services, it is not enough to make standard open interfaces to third- i n c l u d i n g a d d re s s i n g , d i s p a t c h i n g ,
innovations in specific service systems. party systems. It also implements management and authorization, can be
Breakthroughs need to come through the security access control and service level used to form the network deployment
platform and architecture layer. Hence, agreement (SLA) management, which architecture of SDP.

23 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Creating new values for service creation environment and the service
execution environment, the operator can
strategic objectives and service planning.
In other words, the SDP solution should
operators accelerate the development of telecom value- make breakthroughs with services and
added services, hence providing users with gradually develop towards a unified
The design of the SDP architecture has richer services, especially integrated services a rc h i t e c t u re a c c o rd i n g t o d e s i g n e d
incorporated some key ideas of the telecom that can show the operator’s strengths in steps and measures. Targeting the most
and software fields in recent years, for competitions. obvious problems, the SDP solution
example, the service-oriented architecture Wi t h t h e s u p p o r t o f t h e e n a b l e r should be integrated and optimized in
(SOA) and the horizontal architecture a d a p t a t i o n d o m a i n , t h e o p e r a t o r’s different phases and domains, rather than
featuring componentization, integration network can be conveniently compatible remaining unchanged in all applications.
and reuse, as well as a standardized and with new enablers and support future SDP is integrated with various existing
open service environment. The SDP networks, including quickly developing networks, equipment and systems on
solution makes use of enablers, service access network technologies and next- the service layer. Due to the difficulty in
opening gateway, content management, generation network technologies, such as integrating with the management system
service management, and charging parts. the IP multimedia system (IMS), All-IP and the complexity in the operator’s
It also supports enablers and service and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). By existing service system, the implementation
applications of third parties. In this way, adopting the SDP architecture, the service of the SDP solution is a complicated
existing investments of the operator can be layer of the operator’s network can well and systematic process and features some
fully protected. cater to future development trends. typical characteristics of integrated projects.
The SDP customized solution can With a unified service opening gateway, Huawei has been dedicated to the researches
facilitate the operator to make service the operator can open capabilities to third and practices in service network planning
innovations, increase service revenues, parties through standard interfaces. In and SDP solution for years, and has
and curtail the CAPEX and OPEX. With this way, the operator can make full use of accumulated rich experience. In addition to
unified hardware, unified provisioning, various application development groups, related products and technologies, Huawei
unified portal, unified data storage and such as existing IT and Internet, thus provides overall consulting, integration and
management, the SDP solution can enriching telecom value-added services management (CIM) capabilities, including
further cut down the operator’s operation and improving user experiences. architecture planning and service planning
and maintenance costs and offer users with that cover the front end, and SDP project
Service-oriented step-
consistent service experiences. integration and implementation that cover
Through a unified content delivery the back end. Hence, on the basis of such
platform, the operator can form an end-to- by-step development specialized services, Huawei can be trusted
end architecture to support media content to provide operators with the very best
services in various networks, including the Different from traditional projects solutions for their particular needs, and
news and entertainment service, music, that rely on enablers and application this is especially true when it comes to
and video media service. The architecture solutions, the SDP project must joining hands with operators in planning
can significantly improve the operator’s follow the “service-oriented step-by- and implementing their service layer
competition strength in the strategic media step development” principle to form a architecture.
content field. customized SDP solution that caters to
With the support of the carrier-class the operator’s existing network conditions, Editor: Xue Hua xuehua@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 24


MAIN TOPIC
International roaming made easy now

International roaming
made easy now
The European Parliament has recently issued the EU Roaming Regulation to reduce mobile roaming charges in
European Union. Starting from 30 June 2007, the Regulation caps international roaming charges for EU mobile
consumers traveling within the EU at EUR0.49 per minute for calls made and EUR0.24 per minute for calls
received. Down 70% from previous charges, increasing numbers of subscribers can now experience roaming
services at cheaper prices.
By Zhu Jun

A
s the global economy grows a deficiency of services. Faced with this Faced with the above challenges,
r a p i d l y, i n d i v i d u a l s a r e unsustainable situation, operators have had operators need to make a series of
increasingly traveling abroad to take measures to optimize and improve judgments and decisions that will
for business, leisure, and the service. bring direct and far-reaching influences
cultural exchanges. Global concerning pricing, capability and internal
communications has become an inexorable How can roaming increase resource support for international roaming.
trend enhancing travel since the technical
achievements of networks and terminals
competitiveness? This will in turn indirectly influence user
quantity, investment costs, and finally
interconnect different countries through Fierce competition for local services has operation benefits.
basic communication networks, hence the led to a gradual reduction in profits and In order to address the problems faced
world becomes a “global village”. With a many operators tend to compete in the by operators and to meet the roaming
mobile hand-held terminal, one can enjoy differentiated service field by providing requirements of end users, Huawei
unrestricted and seamless communications an international roaming ser vice. A launched its seamless roaming service (SRS)
experience in almost any corner of the major concern for all mobile operators is solution. In full consideration of coverage,
world. identifying methods to attract and retain subscription and queries, service functions
The swift growth of international customers with this service in order to and implementation, this solution is
roaming demand has attracted the attention maximize competitiveness and profits. oriented to roaming value-added services
of many leading operators, who view it Operators are faced with a series of and enables convenient deployment,
as a goldmine of opportunity. Cingular, dilemmas: How can profits be maximized simple subscription, and rapid provision of
Vodafone, China Mobile, SingTel, NTT in terms of existing user groups? What value-added services.
DoCoMo, and SK Telecom have all is the best method to attract new users?
customized a range of international roaming
services for customers.
Can operation costs be reduced? How
should content roaming be deployed? Is
Cost-effective and
Despite the effor ts of operators, there a need for cross-network roaming convenient solution
terminal users increasingly complain about s e r v i c e s b e t we e n G S M a n d C D M A deployment
problems using international roaming, networks? What are the most effective
most notably, the complexity in roaming roaming charge strategies? How are The SRS solution provides services
subscription procedures, expensive charges to be settled with other operators to both outbound and inbound roamers
and non-transparent roaming charges, or intermediate service providers? What who gain access via an operator-deployed
poor communication experiences, and charges are necessary? international service gateway (ISG). It

25 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

should be noted that operators tend to favor


inbound roamers as the number of users
can be quickly increased and operational
benefits immediately improved.
The SRS solution is highly cost
effective since an operator only need
to install an ISG to enable ser vices,
The swift growth of international roaming greatly saving CAPEX. The solution also
ensures low risk implementation and
demand has attracted the attention of rapid deployment as the ISG supports
standard signaling protocols such as
many leading operators, who view it as a MAP2 and CAMEL2, and standard
interfaces including SOAP and SNMP.
goldmine of opportunity. Smooth interconnection with existing
core networks and operation support
systems (BSS/OSS) enhances the value
of the solution, and overall OPEX is
greatly reduced. Moreover, the ISG is
independent from existing network
services and as such does not affect or
rely on existing network services, thereby
freeing operators from problems regarding
the impact of new services on the existing
network.

Completely improving
user experiences
The SRS solution can significantly
simplify the subscription process for
international roaming while enabling
numerous unique ser vice functions
including single IMSI multiple MSISDN
(SIMM), virtual home environment
(VHE) and voice mail redirection (VMR).
This enhances user experience and
improves subscriber turnover.

Simple subscription
Rather than queuing at a customer
service center, a user can subscribe to
the international roaming service via a
customer service hotline, or by sending
an SMS or unstructured supplementary
service data (USSD) message.
When a user is roaming abroad, the
SRS can record communication details. To
inquire about call fees or call detailed records
(CDR), users can dial the service hotline or
log on to the self-help service website.
To s u m m a r i ze , t h e S R S s o l u t i o n
greatly simplifies traditional subscription
procedures for international roaming and
enables users to inquire about consumption

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 26


MAIN TOPIC
International roaming made easy now

information in real time. It can improve operator profits. SoR service


operators’ service qualities and therefore The SRS solution resolves this problem
increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. by providing VHE, which can intelligently The SRS solution also provides the
identify and correct a user’s dialing mistakes innovative SoR function which allows the
SIMM service in a roaming location. Users can maintain operator to control the selection of roaming
their original dialing habits and enjoy networks by international roamers, thus
International roaming incurs considerable guiding roamers to one of its partners’
expense for both calls made and received, enhanced communication experiences.
networks. The SoR function not only
and roamers unsurprisingly wish to reduce enables more roaming value-added services
costs. The SIMM service can help users
VMR service
to users in normal network conditions,
obtain one or more numbers at the roaming If an international roamer has but also extends the operator’s network
location without changing the SIM card. subscribed to the voice mailbox (VM) coverage and user controls. It can avoid
As all numbers are simultaneously online, a ser vice and is either powered off or frauds and defaults, and facilitate inter-
user can select any. The service is flexible and engaged, incoming calls from his or network settlement between operators,
convenient while reducing communication her home country will be forwarded hence reducing operator costs. The SoR
fees and SIM card replacement expenses. to the VM. This can result in two-way function is both convenient and practical
The SIMM ser vice is particularly international toll alternation charges, and since it does not necessitate cooperation
suitable for people who frequently travel to avoid these, many roamers have to with mobile terminals or require existing
abroad as an individual’s original number cancel the VM service, resulting in some network reconstruction.
can be used to contact family, and a new VM service losses for operators.
Improving operation
number at the roaming location can The VMR service provided by the SRS
be used to contact local customers or is an effective solution mitigating the
suppliers, thus saving time and money. above problem. After subscribing to the capabilities
VHE service VMR service, the user will not be faced
As detailed above, the SRS solution is
with expensive international alternation
able to solve problems concerning voice
When making a domestic call at home, charges, and operators can maintain the
communications and short messages in the
a user can simply utilize the telephone normal benefits of VM.
context of international roaming. It can
directory function that does not require an
CIP service also provide many call-related value-added
international access code. When roaming
services and enable seamless communication.
abroad, however, the telephone directory
When an international roamer makes However, voice communications and short
function cannot be used and the user
an international call to his or her home messages are only basic requirements for
may make mistakes if unfamiliar and
country in order to listen to VM, the VM international roamers. When traveling
inexperienced with local dialing modes.
may be unable to identify the caller as abroad, users expect entertainment as well as
Such call failures lead to a decrease in
the calling number is always cut short or information. Multinational operators need
traffic and customer satisfaction, reducing
even discarded when passing through an to implement unified subnet management
international gateway office. As a result, the to reduce operation costs and improve
VM might request the user to input overall competitiveness, and deploy various
his or her number and password cooperation modes in order to form a
which brings much inconvenience to roaming industry value chain.
the user. As the user need not input In line with the “seamless information”
number and password when using concept, the SRS solution connects the Internet,
VM back home, it is quite likely Intranet and roamers. By using a hand-held
that a forgotten password renders terminal, a roamer can obtain and transfer
roaming VM unusable for many, information and enjoy the pleasures and fresh
causing losses in operation benefits. roaming experiences brought by information
The CIP service can prevent at any time and anywhere in the world.
the calling number from being In the future, the SRS solution will seek
cut or discarded, so that users to enhance operability and manageability,
can conveniently access the VM and will help multinational operators to
function during roaming. If there solve operational problems such as multi-
is an incoming message, the CIP subnet management, cooperation with
can inform the user of the message service/content providers and mobile
sender’s number, therefore saving virtual network operators (MVNOs), and
unnecessary communication roaming settlement mechanisms.
expenditure. Editor: Xue Hua xuehua@huawei.com

27 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


HOW TOHuawei
OPERATE
Technologies

Digital music
fine-tuned to your ears
“Consumers are currently inundated
by a sea of marketing information
almost on a daily basis; so much
so, that now traditional and standard
promotional methods have lost their power
to hold consumers’ attention. Hence, people
involved in marketing promotion must search
for new approaches and marketing paths
that can directly reach customers,” said Ben
Taylor, Managing Director of Jack Morton, an
experiential marketing agency.

By Wang Jinjun

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 28


HOW TO OPERATE
Digital music fine-tuned to your ears

Users
Trigger service 1,000,000 14.8% 16%
behavior 14.1%
900,000 14%
Business stimulat
ion 800,000 11.6%
12%
700,000
Subscriber 10%
feedback Analyze 600,000 8.5%
marketing effect 500,000 7.4% 7.0% 8%
400,000 6%
300,000
4%
Compose new 200,000
marketing scheme Music service 100,000 2%
Execute system
marketing activity 0 0%
Operation data 2006.10 2006.11 2006.12 2007.1 2007.2 2007.3
Analyze
operation data Users per month Download users Active rate

Fig.1 Driving forces behind precise marketing of digital music Fig.2 Active rate and channel preference

S
erving as the prelude to the digital music answer to the above questions. Providing perfect
field, the RBT service has enjoyed much subdivision of user groups, correct content
success throughout the world, especially recommendation, and rich service presentation
in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa. channels, precise marketing for digital music can
According to the estimation of some bring users with music experiences at any time and
consulting firms, there will be 346 million RBT anywhere. While enjoying rich service experiences,
subscribers worldwide at the end of this year. Despite users can form a habit of using the service. In this
the prosperous growth of the RBT service, many way, potential service users can start using the service
operators, such as China Mobile, have encountered and gradually become active users, finally high-value
some common problems, for example, a huge and loyal users.
quantity of subscribers either entering or leaving the
network, which results in a high churn rate, and slow From passive marketing to
increase or even stagnant growth of subscribers. They
are also troubled by many “silent” subscribers online,
active marketing
who do not change their RBTs for a long time. Featuring great diversity and fast appearance in
To solve these problems, many operators have the market, digital music is a double-edged sword: It
adopted some promotional measures, expecting allows people to have rich content selections, while it
to retain subscribers and stimulate consumption. hinders people from finding the music that they are
However, the results of these measures are not most interested in.
satisfactory. Trapped in such a situation, operators To solve this problem, digital music operators, for
are eager to find a solution for their questions: example, Apple and Baidu, concentrate music on a
How should they effectively improve the subscriber public platform by categories and provide convenient
penetration rate, activate subscribers to increase RBT and rich index measures. These measures are very
change rate, and retain subscribers in the network? efficient and can help a user easily find the contents
The long and enshrined history of human he or she is interested in. This is a passive marketing
civilization has left us with a tremendous amount mode.
and variety of musical works to draw from. Living However, the passive marketing mode does not
in this changing era, we also have the chance to win universal recognitions. Many users do not
experience various forms of new and exciting music. have enough time and energy to look for suitable
However, each individual might be interested in only contents, while many others do not know how to
a limited range of music. So, what is the best way find the contents they like. For such reasons, the
to help each user find the kind of music he or she promotion of the music service has encountered a lot
prefers? of barriers, which has inevitably led to the creation
Precise marketing for digital music, which is of precise marketing.
tailored for customer differentiation, is a good Precise marketing is an active marketing mode.

29 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Times Times
45000 1400
5.51% 2.31%
40000 1200
5.41%
35000
1000
30000
25000 800
20000 600
15000
400
10000
5000 200

86.77% 0 Hour 0 Hour


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Web IVR SMS WAP Total Web IVR SMS WAP

Fig.3 Curve of RBT downloads covering a one-day period

Through active information sending and


intelligent dialogs with users, it effectively
Practice is touchstone marketing successes, a key procedure
is to obtain in-depth understanding
combines IT and telecom measures in Precise marketing for digital music in regards to the business situation. To
order to conduct as many marketing will accelerate the development of the accomplish this, valued customers should
services as possible. digital music service. By the means of be subdivided in a scientific way, in order
In terms of IT means, various Webs, rich marketing measures, it stimulates the to implement precise marketing for
communities, forums, billboards, development of the digital music service data services and provide differentiated,
recommendations and search engines are and widely propagates digital music personalized services.
purposely designed to induce people to contents. After data analysis for nearly two
search for their favored contents while As shown in Fig. 1, precise marketing weeks, China Mobile Shanxi evaluated
actively accessing assigned addresses. For for digital music includes the following its subscribers in the province from the
example, some Web2.0-based Websites, steps: formulate marketing strategy, growth of RBT subscribers, churn rate, and
like Pandora and Last.fm, have formed analyze target customers, determine degrees of enthusiasm of these subscribers.
mature applications in this aspect. marketing timing, select marketing The operator also referred to the service
An operator can also actively recommend channel, and adjust marketing strategy. marketing activity records of the past few
contents to users by using the wireless access These steps can jointly reach the target months. According to the analysis, it was
protocol (WAP), short message service of digital music marketing, which is to found that only 10.7% of RBT subscribers
(SMS), multimedia messaging service recommend suitable digital music contents in Shanxi Province were frequent users.
(MMS), outgoing interactive voice response to suitable target customers at proper In the months evaluated, the degrees of
(IVR) call, and service presentations for time and through proper channels. As a downloading frequency changed greatly,
different users. At present, the industry sees result, information will be actively sent, indicating that only a small number of
strong requirements for related technologies and feedback information will be received; RBT subscribers downloaded RBTs stably,
and applications. However, little knowledge thereby, allowing operations selected by while most subscribers downloaded RBTs
is available about how to subdivide users. the users to be accurately and efficiently only during holidays and promotional
Some consulting firms can offer analysis executed. activities. It was also found that most
on some refined user behaviors based on In April 2007, Huawei completed a subscribers had limited their channels of
various services; however, none of them RBT precise marketing project for China downloading RBTs through the Web, as
has made in-depth researches on the music Mobile Shanxi, which has fully proved 86% of all downloads were made in the
domain. Huawei’s “precise marketing” the effectiveness of the precise marketing Web mode.
solution can analyze user behaviors, and theory for digital music. Based on the above analysis results,
scientifically classify and match music China Mobile Shanxi decided to implement
contents and customers. Using various Analyzing the target customers precise marketing in order to improve the
measures, the solution recommends the subscribers’ enthusiasm in music contents.
most suitable contents to different user In order to better analyze and discover China Mobile Shanxi also decided to
groups. market opportunities, thereby assuring educate subscribers about other download

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 30


HOW TO OPERATE
Digital music fine-tuned to your ears

channels through SMS and outgoing IVR calls. effect, the marketing process should be closely
The precise marketing activity by China Mobile monitored, and adjustment should be timely made
Shanxi was oriented to five types of subscribers: for problems detected. According to the marketing
silent subscribers, active subscribers, new subscribers, experiences of some service providers, China Mobile
ordinary subscribers, and music-club subscribers. Shanxi summarized some possible problems: The
Each subscriber category was subdivided, and subscriber might not understand the key characters
different RBT contents and marketing channels were that are used to reply the short messages; the
designed according to the characteristics of each subscriber does not know how to correctly reply the
subdivided user group. Some other subscribers form message in order to download music; more than 6.1%
a comparison group. China Mobile Shanxi recorded of the subscribers that make successful downloads
and compared the service data of the groups under actually select to download music at least 10 days
marketing and the data of the comparison group, after receiving the group-sending short messages;
and summarized the implementation result of the the subscriber cannot reply within the specified
marketing scheme. marketing duration. To avoid these problems, China
Mobile Shanxi determined that the group-sending
Determining the marketing timing messages should be simple, and each subscriber can
Service marketing activities made at different download music by replying merely a corresponding
timing might lead to different results. By counting the number; in addition, a long marketing period was
downloads made in a one day period, China Mobile set in order to achieve the desired effect.
Shanxi found that the times when most downloads After implementing a series of marketing
occurred were at 9:30a.m. and 3:00p.m. At 9:30a.m., strategies, China Mobile Shanxi was able to achieve
when subscribers are getting ready to start their work, good marketing effects. The overall marketing
they tend to be more energetic and exhibit a stronger message-reply rate was 1.44% and the download
desire for consumption. At 3:00p.m., subscribers rate was 1.27%, three times of that resulted from the
generally tend to have more leisure time to download ordinary SMS marketing mode. The reply rate from
RBTs. Based on these findings, China Mobile silent subscribers reached 9.2%. All these figures
Shanxi decided to conduct marketing activities at convincingly proved that precise marketing can make
9:00-10:00a.m. and 3:00-3:30p.m. good promotions.
In addition to the above effects, the precise
Selecting the marketing channel marketing activity by China Mobile Shanxi
Different marketing channels can bring different facilitated the formation of service usage habits
effects in marketing activities. The SMS mode is among RBT subscribers.
very convenient, but cannot offer music experiences. During the marketing period, the number of
The IVR mode is convenient and offers some service subscribers downloading charged RBTs increased
experiences, but might disturb subscribers. WAP by 10.2%, indicating that precise marketing has
Push and MMS modes are also convenient and offer improved the KPI for the RBT service, cultivated
service experiences, and bring little disturbance to subscribers’ download habit, and increased
subscribers; however, they place high requirements subscribers’ adhesiveness to service.
on terminals. The Web mode can satisfy the need for During the marketing period, the percentage of
service experiences and does not disturb subscribers, free RBT downloads was greatly decreased from
but it cannot guarantee real-time marketing. 46% to 31%; and the usage rate for RBTs cheaper
After comparing all these marketing channels, than RMB1 (USD0.13) was increased from 19.8%
China Mobile Shanxi selected the SMS mode for the to 40%. This showed that precise marketing can
RBT marketing scheme. Huawei’s RBT marketing weaken subscribers’ sensitivity in prices and optimize
platform was adopted. Upon receiving a marketing the download revenue structure.
short message, the subscriber could select to reply At present, precise marketing in music services
with some key characters. As soon as receiving the still focuses on the RBT service. However, it can be
subscriber’s reply, the RBT marketing system can foreseen that in the near future, with the prosperous
initiate an outgoing call so that the subscriber can growth of digital music services represented by
listen to the selected music in trial mode. In this the RBT service, precise marketing based on user
way, the SMS marketing mode can offer music behavior subdivision will be applied in wider ranges,
experiences. and will greatly support the marketing of various
music services, such as the downloading of extended
Monitoring the marketing effect ring tones and complete songs.
To guarantee a good marketing implementation Editor: Pan Tao pantao@huawei.com

31 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Rolling the dice of


mobile marketing
By Deng Jianhua

A
fter lunch on Friday, when the mobile marketing approach that is be a double-edged sword. For instance,
Jo h n , w h o i s a n a rd e n t currently being introduced by China if advertisements are randomly sent
cartoon fan, was sitting in Mobile on the basis of its content delivery to subscribers, it is much like sending
the office and feeling a little platform (CDP). The CDP is a mobile junk messages to email accounts on the
bored, he noticed that he online business system and supports Internet. Subscribers might become highly
had just received a WAP Push message mobile operators to provide business- agitated, start complaining, or even decide
on his mobile phone. Wow? It was a flash to-customer (B2C) services based on to quit the network.
cartoon book, Confucius Speaks: Words value-added contents. Through mobile Hence, an important key for successful
to Live By, that was just sent to him by communication channels, it promotes mobile advertising would be to comply
his buddy Marry, through China Mobile’s mobile value-added contents to end users. with the 4C model and focus on target
Monternet. John immediately clicked the This marketing mode is called mobile subscribers.
link and downloaded the file to read it. marketing.
After he finished, he was prompted to click
Complying with the 4C model
an attached link to buy the cartoon series Mobile advertising In a survey conducted by the HPI
by Tsai Chih-chung, a famous cartoonist.
John was even offered snippets of some
becomes a pioneer Research Group on SMS advertising,
over 3,300 mobile subscribers between
other material to read on a trial basis. How To date, China Mobile’s Monternet has the ages 16-45 were interviewed in 11
considerate, he thought to himself? John acquired more than 100 million subscribers countries. The study reveals that as many
immediately clicked the link and entered and enjoys great success. Statistics show as 86% of those surveyed agreed that it
the Website. After reading a few pages, he that in promoting Monternet services, would be acceptable to receive commercial
decided to buy The Tao Speaks: Lao-Tzu’s mobile advertisements sent from the 1860 advertisements on their mobile phones
Whispers of Wisdom, along with The Dao SMS platform were far more effective than if advertisers paid certain mobile charges
of Zhuangzi: The Harmony of Nature. John that on the standard media promotion of for them. About 88% of the interviewees
again said to himself, “This is really great? service providers (SPs). Mobile advertising do not mind receiving such contents as
How nice of Marry to think of me and has become an important marketing tool stock information on their mobile phones,
send me this message, and Monternet’s to develop business transactions on the while nearly 31% expressed a high desire
service is so wonderful?” CDP. to receive stock information and related
John’s ser vice experience reflects However, mobile advertising can also contents. The results show that subscribers

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 32


HOW TO OPERATE
Rolling the dice of mobile marketing

would accept commercial advertisements them. Therefore, mobile marketing needs aware of a product or service, then he or
if certain conditions are satisfied, and that to provide more services than just mobile she begins to show interest in the product
subscribers would like to have the valueless advertising. or service. As the subscriber becomes more
information screened. In the CDP, the operator sells mainly informed about a particular product,
In summary, consumers need 4C in media contents, which includes RBT, then he or she often expresses a desire to
order to accept mobile advertising under pictures, games, and music. The process of purchase the product or service. Mobile
the following criteria: choice - they are media content consumption is not much marketing should encompass an overall
free to decide whether or not to accept different than any other ordinary shopping marketing approach that covers the
any advertising message; control - they can process in life. Therefore, what needs to complete purchase process.
easily avoid unwanted sales information; be done first is to study the subscriber
customization - they can customize the purchase behavior model. Phase of awareness
types of information they want to receive; A subscriber’s shopping and purchase
In this phase, the operator should
and C Quid pro quo - they want some behavior can be determined by using the
form of pay-back from advertisers such as a awareness, interest, desire, and action
reduction in service charges and electronic (AIDA) model. A person first becomes
coupons that can be used in online
department stores. If these principles are
met, mobile advertisements based on the
4C model will be able to bring subscribers
a wider range of added values, instead of
irritation and discomfort.
Focusing on target subscribers
Most people need sufficient time
and effort to completely read through
a message they receive on their mobile
phones. Therefore, if the message being
received does not suit the subscriber, it will
most likely be deleted and be considered
as a junk message. Therefore, an important
step to implement the 4C model is to
target specific subscribers.
Operators also have a greater advantage
in this type of advertising since they
already know the subscribers’ basic interests
and hobbies, as well as their likes and
dislikes regarding product information.
Hence, by adopting mobile advertising
strategies, they can target subscribers and
loyal customers and send the kind of
mobile advertisements that the subscribers
might be interested in. The advertisements
sent to subscribers might also be used as
coupons. In this way, operators can avoid
agitating subscribers, while at the same
time increasing the success rate of their
advertisements.

Spanning the entire


purchase process
Mobile advertisements are very useful
for informing subscribers about products.
However, subscribers might not buy
products just because they know about

33 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

utilize various methods for the purpose of related to the sales contents, in order to news titles for free.
informing potentially valuable customers indirectly guide the consumption. For
about value-added contents. example, when a subscriber is in the Phase of action
In addition to mobile advertising, process of buying pictures of Michael Mobile marketing can be implemented
mobile marketing measures employed in Jordan, the CDP can also offer the even in the phase of action. For instance,
this phase would include: word-of-mouth, subscriber other products about Michael the operator can refer to the shopping
ranking, flexible product display, cross- Jordan such as “Video Clips of Michael score scheme of supermarkets for the
selling, and a search engine. Jordan” and “NBA Songs”, to further purpose of encouraging subscribers to
Word-of-mouth: This is a measure arouse the subscriber’s desire to purchase buy more products. Another method is to
whereby various products are promoted these items. In this article, after John encourage subscribers to send gifts to each
among subscribers. For instance, if finished reading the flash car toon, other. Operators can pack value-added
subscriber A likes a product and thinks Confucius Speaks: Words to Live By, he contents into gifts so that subscribers
that subscribers B, C and D might also bought related commodities through links can buy and send them to others. This
enjoy having it, then A might recommend that were attached to the cartoon. is considered an important marketing
the product. In this article, the flash Search engine: The tremendous success measure. A good example of the successful
cartoons sent to John by his friend Marry, of Google clearly illustrates the huge application of this measure is described
through Monternet, serves as a typical demand of subscribers for active search in greater details at the beginning of this
example of word-of-mouth promotion. engines. Operator can also offer a mobile article, when John received flash cartoons
The operator needs to determine who search engine, through which subscribers sent by Marry.
the first 100 subscribers (seed subscribers) can more easily and conveniently find what
will be before star ting the product they want. Undoubtedly, this measure will Phase of after-action
promotion. This type of community become much more successful over the
coming future. For subscribers that have already
forwarding mechanism, which is based
purchased products, the operator can set
on a broadcasting effect, is not only legal,
but also avoids incensing subscribers, and Phase of interest and desire up a “VIP customer club”, which gives
the operator the opportunity to deploy
moreover, it enables a higher success rate. In this phase, to attract subscribers, continuous mobile marketing. In this way,
In general, the operator can implement the operator can release product packages the operator can organize a few customer
i n t e r - s u b s c r i b e r re c o m m e n d a t i o n s that are specifically oriented to different care activities. Moreover, the CDP can
together with the preferential score subscriber groups. For example, for actively send product recommendation
method. Recommenders can be awarded high-school students, freshmen, and messages to subscribers upon subscriber
preferential score by operators for their s o p h o m o re s , o p e r a t o r s c a n re l e a s e authorization, in the event that an
recommendations. Hence, the operator, “American hip-hop video package” which upgraded version of the product is released,
recommender and receiver can all help to includes pictures of hip-hop stars, hip- or in case there happens to be strongly
form a triple-win situation. hop music, and hip-hop videos. For white- related products that the subscriber might
Ranking: Since value-added contents collar workers, operators can release “leisure be interested in.
are highly diverse, it is often quite difficult at noon package” which includes cartoons In this modern society, mobile phones
for subscribers to select just the right one. by Ron Chu, crossword puzzles, and block have become a necessity for many people.
In this case, operators can rank various games. The consumption of contents through
products from different aspects, such as In addition, the operator can let mobile phones has now become the latest
ranking of new songs, ranking of the most subscribers experience a few types of fashion. Hence, value-added contents
popular games, and ranking of the most contents for free, in order to cultivate their provided by the CDP will become more
beautiful scenery pictures. In this way, the interests and desires to purchase these types and more popular among subscribers in
operator can help guide subscribers in the of contents. The principle employed here the near future.
selection and consumption process. is, “a subscriber can find out more about In the complete purchase process, which
Flexible product display: The display a given product after taking advantage of includes the phase of awareness, phase of
of various commodities in supermarkets the free trial, but the subscriber will not interest and desire, phase of action, and
can directly influence our consumption be able to download or obtain the entire phase of after-action, mobile marketing
habits and interests in life. Therefore, the product.” For example, the operator can can cultivate more pleasant shopping
display of products is very important in let subscribers try out different contents, experiences by utilizing more humanistic
terms of product sales. As the CDP is a but the times or duration of each trial marketing measures, in order to bring
software system controlled by the PC, it is limited. In a game, operators can let content products closer to subscribers and
can flexibly place products according to subscribers see typical game scenes and set up a win-win relationship between
subscriber groups and interests. download a limited trial version. Other subscribers and operators.
Cross-selling: This purpose of this methods might include providing free
measure is to create links for products directories of consulting reports, and a few Editor: Xu Ping x.ping@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 34


We’ve continued our customer-driven philosophy that strives for application
integration, creates a value chain environment, and establishes support in
multiple layers - platforms, products and solutions.
Guo Yajun, the Deputy Director of Huawei Application and Software Product Marketing Dept.

A multi-win blueprint for VAS


At the Fourth Analyst Meeting held by Huawei in its Shenzhen headquarters, analysts from 28 globally renowned
consulting firms gathered for an open dialog with Huawei management. Meeting attendees included Gartner, Informa,
Forrester, Heavyreading/Lightreading, IDC, iDATE, Ovum-RHK, Pyramid and Yankee. Analysts caught up with Guo Yajun,
the Deputy Director of Huawei Application and Software Product Marketing Dept., and discussed a number of subjects
regarding Huawei’s capabilities and strategies in value-added service (VAS) sector.
By Li Zicui

Cooperation brings multiple products and solutions will further focus on service
integration transformation so as to improve end-to-end
wins delivery capabilities, and we’ll continue strengthening
cooperation and alliances to maintain our lead in
Analyst: What are the current market position current developmental trends.
and policies of Huawei’s application and software
products? Have you considered future development? Analyst: We know that Huawei has released an
inTouch partnership plan. What’s its current status?
Guo Yajun: Huawei’s application and software
products and solutions have been widely applied by Guo Yajun: The initial focus of our inTouch Lab
250 operators in 104 countries, including 7 of the top partnership plan is to consolidate the dynamic value
10 global operators, and 28 of the top 50. Huawei’s chain environment between partners in order to
intelligent network and ring back tone (RBT) products create win-win relationships. It forms an integrated
are widely accepted globally and have become industry- service experience center that enables customers to
leading brands. And, Huawei’s data service solutions experience converged services and networks at a single
have been applied by 158 operators in 79 countries. location, and supports global release and synchronized
We’ve continued our customer-driven philosophy demonstrations.
that strives for application integration, creates a value The inTouch partnership plan includes the inTouch
chain environment, and establishes support in multiple Lab, inTouch Experience Center and inTouch
layers - platforms, products and solutions. In addition, Partnership Program. The inTouch Lab provides a
Huawei cooperates with its partners to provide an lab environment for rapid service deployment, the
effective marketing environment, and create service inTouch Experience Center allows users to experience
planning and innovation platforms. Integral to this new services, and the inTouch Partnership Program
is the existence of a win-win industry value chain concerns developing cooperation and project operations
during the transition process of the telecommunication with various CPs/SPs. To date, 300 globally renowned
industry operation model. enterprises have joined the partnership plan.
In the future, our application and software We’re willing to partner with industry peers

35 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


INTERVIEW

including competitors and third parties to construct a multi-channel user access and content distribution.
service value chain that prioritizes shared interests. At Moreover, we’ve offered field-specific SDP solutions
present, we work with more than 300 SP/CP partners in NG-IN, IMS and messaging to meet the needs of
including Sina, TOM and Index multimedia. multi-national operators in Europe and Latin America
In addition to providing service experiences, the with respect to centralized service layer deployment,
inTouch Experience Center and partnership plan have transnational operation and cost reduction.
a number of research functions spanning customer The SDP solution provides mature universal
behavior, market conditions, business development components such as MDSP, OSG, Message+, CMS,
trends and pricing strategies. This aims to allow all PortalOne and NG-AS for mobile VAS management,
partners to fully understand market requirements, seize third party service opening, multimedia messaging,
market opportunities and jointly undertake R&D for content delivery and next-generation service
products and solutions. Huawei will fully utilize its convergence. During the product design phase,
local networks and global resources to promote service Huawei referenced the service specifications of
innovation, effective business models, and explore standardization organizations including Parlay, OMA,
potential markets with our partners. Operators can 3GPP, TISPAN and ITU. We not only emphasized the
improve the speed and convenience of VAS delivery, standardization, openness and integration capability of
and thus achieve commercial success amidst fierce service component interfaces and functions, but also
competition. SPs/CPs can more readily implement capitalized on the inherent advantages of our solutions
their ideas regarding services and content via effective in terms of capacity, performance and cost.
technical solutions, and exhibit their strengths in a
more effective way so as to obtain support from more Analyst: In what ways have you considered
partners and enhance cooperation with operators. The convergent billing? Can the Huawei CBS solution be
ownership of an efficient telecommunications’ bearer copied?
channel will assist SPs/CPs garner greater results. Guo Yajun: Convergent billing forms an inevitable
future trend for telecommunication service billing. It
Various strategies yield rich can deliver numerous benefits for operators. Firstly, it
experiences helps operators succeed competitively through offering
flexible billing and a quicker response to market
Analyst: What are your development strategies demands. Secondly, it can reduce OPEX and, thirdly,
regarding the service delivery platform (SDP)? Have it can avoid the risk of overdue payments through real-
you adopted a modular design? What about reuse? time charging.
In order to deploy a convergent billing system,
Guo Yajun: We believe that the SDP is an important most operators have to reconstruct their existing
means to achieve a service layer integration that billing and operation support systems, and restructure
responds to industry transformation requirements their departments. For this reason, the process will
in terms of service convergence, transparency and be slow. Nevertheless, some emerging operators have
centralized construction. already utilized convergent billing to improve overall
Both the understanding and implementation operation quality and thus have changed the pattern of
requirements of the SDP vary with operators and competition.
application fields. To satisfy the requirements of China We think that operators need a standardized
Telecom and China Unicom for VAS integration, we’ve convergent billing system that can easily integrate
launched an integrated solution combining integrated peripheral systems and CP/SP services. This system
access gateways and integrated service management should also provide large capacity, high performance,
platforms. This implements unified management and effective security, real-time charging, and allow user
standard access, and integrates operational systems access via the Internet to stimulate self-management.
for the provision of data and voice VAS. To realize the The billing mode should be flexible and customizable.
3G content service development demands of Saudi Huawei’s convergent billing solution adheres to this
Arabia’s Mobily, we launched an integrated solution design concept: structurally, it’s divided into standard
that combines integrated service management, unified and customizable components. The standard aspect
portals and content service creation environment. This embodies a billing system platform that allows batch
solution implements third-party multimedia content copies, while the customizable feature can respond
aggregation, content marketing, service customization, to the different needs of customers and increase user

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 36


satisfaction. important to guarantee the IPTV service effect. Thanks
The convergent billing solution has been to years of experience in the data communication,
commercially applied by China Mobile Guangdong. access and transmission fields, we’re able to achieve
Experts from China Mobile Guangdong view adaptation between bearer network equipment and
convergent billing as a means to reduce yearly overdue the IPTV system platform, thus greatly reducing the
payments amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB. complexity of network construction. Meanwhile, we
It can also greatly improve billing flexibility and shorten provide network guarantees including QoS, MPLS
the time-to-market for China Mobile Guangdong’s VPN, multicast and security in order to improve the
products, should it be applied across Guangdong. running efficiency of IPTV services.
Lastly, the integrated service NM platform provides
Analyst: What are the advantages of Huawei
not only content management, OSS/BSS, device
IPTV compared to its competitors’ products? What
management and STB remote management, but also
do you think about the component universality of
VAS and end-to-end integrated network management.
IPTV, mobile TV and DTV? What are your future
The management and maintenance of the entire
development strategies?
network is simplified, thus lowering O&M costs. It also
Guo Yajun: We deeply understand operators’ IPTV supports role and domain-based management as well as
requirements and focus on the issues that they’ll face complete CP/SP management and industry application
during IPTV deployment, and as such we provide capabilities.
convergent end-to-end solutions. We’ve resolved Although the IPTV/MTV/DTV solution is based on
key issues that may arise during IPTV construction a specific broadband/wireless/coaxial network capability,
and operation including system integration, service components such as user authentication, content
operation, operation support and subsequent management and streaming servers can be shared.
development. For integrated service operators, seamless connections
Firstly, our IPTV solution’s system middleware between service networks and user terminals can be
provides standard and open interfaces that enable easy implemented to improve user coverage and service
interconnection with equipment from other vendors, experiences, while reducing network construction costs
facilitates rapid deployment across the entire system and operators’ maintenance input.
and quickly adapts to new services. It also delivers In the future, the video service development trend
effective support for operators’ differentiated services will be an integrated media service platform that
and improves profitability. Through set-top box supports multiple formats, content and converged
(STB) middleware technology, we can conveniently services across networks and terminals. The platform
and quickly integrate third-party STBs, unify end will provide a friendly, community-based media
user experience and lower operators’ total network entertainment experience for users by combining
deployment costs. communications, messaging, friends’ networks, and
Secondly, the content distribution system adopts sharing capabilities with core network support and
content delivery network (CDN) technology, and Internet application.
supports centralized, distributed and multi-level hybrid
Analyst: What are your views on the enterprise
networking. It can be smoothly expanded to support
market? Do you have any products to support it?
millions of users according to network development
needs, and can support multiple networking modes, Guo Yajun: The enterprise market is an important
while keeping pace with network construction. field of communication information services.
Consequently, investment is effectively protected. Rapidly developing communication technologies
Moreover, it provides multiple content distribution will doubtlessly improve efficiency and reduce costs
mechanisms including manual, time-based, area-based, for enterprises. Increasing numbers of operators are
and intelligent distribution. This saves the system beginning to transform to ICT and provide various
storage and network bandwidth and lowers deployment applications for enterprises. We feel that this market
costs. The content distribution system adopts both offers a very large area for development.
global and local scheduling policies to guarantee that We’ve undertaken long-term investment and research
the success rate of user on-demand requests reaches into the promotion of enterprise informatization,
100%, and by doing so increases user satisfaction. especially the mobilization of enterprise information. At
The IPTV solution adopts Huawei-developed carrier- present, there are mainly three solutions for enterprise
class ATAE hardware. All the key components and market development: mobile agent server (MAS),
devices possess redundancy backup or load balancing, unified communication and industry call center. We’ve
giving a reliability of 99.999%. considered and researched industry application modes
Bearer network support and optimization are and have launched the city information management

37 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


INTERVIEW

system for city informatization. are operating across networks with over 60,000 agents.
MAS is deployed within an enterprise to provide They have been widely applied in numerous industries
development tools for short message services, service such as finance (banks, securities, insurance and funds),
marketing and customer care. In the future, MAS will government and taxation (state and local taxation), and
further integrate various communication capabilities to electric power and posts. Now, we already have over 60
further benefit an enterprise. To date, over 5000 MAS ISV partners and provide more than 1,000 agents for
suites have been deployed globally. China Telecom Guangzhou’s outsourced call center.
Enterprise users can utilize the unified This has greatly enhanced our call center experience
communication solution for unified communications and we now provide our own IP call centers. In
and co-office tasking. The system can implement addition to the large-capacity, highly-integrated
binding between land lines, mobile phones and soft UAP8100, we can supply the equally integrated,
terminals. Users can employ co-office functions low-cost UAP2100 and UAP3300 series, which are
including instant messaging, electronic white boards, specifically oriented to the enterprise customer market.
video conferencing and enterprise address books. We These facilitate flexible networking capabilities that
provide two business models: product sales and online satisfy the application requirements of various sized
services. The online service model allows an enterprise enterprises.
to greatly improve internal efficiency without having We’re grateful to our partners for their trust and
to purchase any hardware equipment. The unified support. We seek to co-operate with customers and
communication solution has been applied in over 20 partners in various fields to promote VAS and business
offices in China, and is now venturing into overseas model transformation to create added value and a win-
markets. win service environment that is underpinned by an
The industry call center solution provides large- ethos of dedication, innovation and cooperation.
scale call centers for operators and enterprises. At
present, more than 1,600 call center product suites Editor: Zhou Huajiao zhouhj@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 38


MEDIA INSIGHT

Mobile marketing
Getting the message across

I
n UK, nearly every adult living in an urban
area (97 per cent) owns a mobile phone,
and 48 per cent of 15 to 24 year olds say
that SMS is their preferred electronic
communication method, pipping email
to the post. With this in mind it is important to
understand exactly how the mobile channel can be
used for marketing in the best possible way. While
advertisers want to create compelling campaigns to
reach these mobile users, operators must prevent
the perception of mobile marketing as spam which
diminishes the trust and effectiveness of mobile
media as a channel for companies to reach their
customers.
The different mobile marketing options
available, alongside the far reaching potential for
brands and mobile operators alike, is becoming
common industry talk. Recently Sir Martin
Sorrell, chief executive of marketing group WPP,
highlighted the growing importance of the mobile
device. Figures compiled by WPP suggest that
mobile phones will account for a 5 per cent share
of all advertising spend in Britain by 2010.
Putting this into context - this would result
in over 20 per cent increase in total mobile data
revenues for UK operators. In addition, research by
Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that the market
for advertising on mobile phones is due to be worth
more than USD11.3 billion annually in 2011.
The multitude of mobile data services available,
from text and picture messaging to direct
response, sales promotion and mobile Internet,
ensures the scope for future development is
large, with over £500 million spent on mobile
premium content in 2006, according to the
World Wireless Forum. But it is not only the
reach of mobile marketing that makes it a more
attractive option than traditional media, such as
television or newspapers. With people spending

39 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Mobile marketing is a unique way for brands to communicate directly with their
customers, providing access, insight and feedback at the individual level. According
to the Mobile Data Association, 41.8 billion text messages were sent in 2006, with 4.3
billion sent in January alone - a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent.

By Gareth Maclachlan From Telecoms.com, 13 August 2007

increasing amounts of time on the Internet, mobile is an Consumers have a right to privacy, and operators can
excellent way of bridging the gap to deliver advertising and implement the subscriber protection necessary to separate
marketing messages that would otherwise be missed if they out unsolicited advertising, while offering reputable
were presented in print or broadcast, or to reinforce cross- advertisers with insight into individual user behaviour,
platform campaigns. preferences, and propensity to purchase.
However, the industry is realising that whilst the The current approach of providing wholesale messaging
opportunity is vast, this new channel of communication as a commodity without enforcement of operator policies
can be exploited very easily. When you consider that and individual preferences is the fastest way of losing the
the mobile phone is the first completely personal battle. Individual product managers in their eagerness to
communications device that enables companies to directly add new content to the networks are allowing subscribers’
contact and influence the consumer in countless ways, it mobile details to be passed out when a user browses
becomes clear how this can be easily abused. through to a content provider’s site - throwing away the
So how can companies ensure that their advertising subscriber’s trust and the lynchpin of an operator’s value
campaigns are successful not only in terms of ROI but also in the converged mobile media industry. By collecting and
in building key relationships with their target audience? filtering information based on the user’s explicit content
The answer is two-fold and needs to be approached from preferences and observed behaviour, operators will be able
both the point of view of the marketeer and the operator. to maximise advertising revenue, drive response rates and
Advertisers need access. Advertisers are well aware that the maintain the reputation of their brands.
mobile device opens up many new and exciting opportunities Where next? One of the biggest threats acknowledged
to target different segments of the consumer market. by operators is the emergence of Internet search engines
However, aggressive marketing campaigns incorporating the into mobile search and mobile advertising, who are aiming
mass sending of SMS are not going to be successful as they to suck the value out of the network and leave it as hollow,
fail to respond to customer’s preferences. While successful valueless pipes. With rumours surrounding the development
brands will recognise and seek the permission of their of a new Google Phone and search engines such as Ask
customers, the mobile channel is not yet enabled for them and Yahoo entering the mobile domain, operator profits
to reach new potential customers in the way that they can could fall. There are several key steps operators can take
through print, TV, radio and online media. to ensure revenue remains unchallenged. Acting now to
The experiments in advertising-funded mobile services develop knowledge of subscribers’ preferences through
such as Blyk and Pitch may encourage users to sign up observation of behaviour, and building the subscriber’s trust
for mobile advertising. The failure of this model for ISPs by protecting their privacy allows an operator to become
a decade ago may be repeated, with response rates and a valuable channel for brands to reach their customers. By
advertising revenues falling rapidly after a honeymoon using even the limited information an operator has today,
period, and with such models rarely matching advertisers operators can increase wholesale messaging prices by up to
with target audiences. 800 percent through responding to the advertisers’ needs.
With this in mind, mobile operators are currently The crucial message for both advertisers and operators is
looking to re-connect with advertising agencies and that the customer is the key: You’ve got to get it right or the
consumer brands in order to bring a fresh approach customer will shut you out.
to mobile advertising. However, to be successful they
must only do so with the customer’s explicit permission. Editor: Zhou Huajiao zhouhj@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 40


SOLUTION
Message+: Give your message a big plus

I
n early 2005, SK Telecom and KTF
introduced the Emoticon short
message service (SMS) in South
Korea, allowing subscribers to send
images or photos along with their
text messages based on corresponding key
words. After the inception of the service, SK
Telecom’s Emoticon SMS attracted 700,000
subscribers from April to August 2005.
At the beginning of 2006, the number of
Emoticon SMS subscribers exceeded 1
million and, by the middle of 2006, the
penetration rate of SK Telecom’s Emoticon
SMS exceeded 5%, delivering an income
of around USD1 million each month. The
personalized Emoticon SMS has created a
new and valuable SMS profit mode for SK
Telecom.

New service, new


requirements
Why was the Emoticon SMS so successful
in South Korea? Some major reasons are the
innovative content that combines text and
images and photos, convenient usage, and a
flawless subscriber experience.
If provided by a traditional service
provider (SP), the Emoticon SMS is
generally triggered by the SP access code.
When sending a message, a subscriber
needs to add the SP access code in front of
the mobile number of the message receiver
before the SP processes and forwards the
message. This service mode obviously has
numerous limitations. Firstly, it cannot
enable simple group sending of Emoticon
messages. To send an Emoticon message to
multiple receivers, a subscriber must add
the SP access code in front of each receiving
number and send the message many times.
Secondly, as the SP access code is added
in front of the sender number, the receiver

+
Message
Give your message a big plus
By Yin Weihua

41 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

cannot identify the message sender, and To date, all messaging services adopt subscriber information, data, portal, logic
may assume it is spam message. vertical deployment which isolates each control, and service management capabilities.
SK Telecom’s Emoticon SMS adopts service and makes it difficult to realize a
a subscription relationship triggering converged service experience. Hierarchical architecture
mode. Subscription to Emoticon SMS A s m e s s a g i n g s e r v i c e s h a ve b e e n The Message+ solution has scientifically
will automatically convert all ordinary text gradually developing, convergent messaging analyzed both the common and unique
messages to Emoticon messages, thus allowing services are urgently required by both features of new messaging services, and
a subscriber to group send an Emoticon subscribers and operators, and thus an has adjusted and optimized traditional
message. By providing Emoticon SMS, SK independent messaging service layer messaging service architecture. As shown in
Telecom has supplied not only a new value- becomes essential. The role of this layer is Figure 1, basic dispatching capabilities are
added service, but also a new mode of service to achieve higher service levels by unifying separated from service logic after deploying
subscription, triggering and use. message storage capabilities, service use an independent messaging service layer,
However, this new mode brings with interfaces, and triggering for converged which lays the foundation for building a
it two major challenges to the technical services. This layer benefits both end users unified value-added service platform.
architecture of traditional messaging services. and operators by optimizing investment and Independent service units: With service
providing rapid new service deployment development trends in mind, personal
Separating basic dispatching capabilities, flexible service integration, and address book, personal favorites and personal
capabilities from services consistent subscriber information. message storage capabilities are provided by
The development of all messaging
Message+ exploring new
independent service units in order to shorten
s e r v i c e s h a s p r o g re s s e d f r o m b a s i c new service development and delivery times.
messaging capabilities to extended services.
To date, SMS and MMS extended services
spaces Unified service execution environment
(SEE): The unified SEE on the service
have been widely used in many countries To assist operators construct future- platform enables rapid ne w ser vice
including message filtering, forwarding oriented messaging service networks, Huawei deployment, thus maximizing operators’
and duplication. The future will see released its Message+ solution in 2006 to market opportunities.
additional value-added messaging services provide operators with unified storage, Rapid system deployment in the
continually deployed across networks.
Two problems occur if new services are
superimposed onto the existing system.
3rd party applications Content provider
Firstly, the bottom-level message dispatching
capabilities might be negatively affected,
including stability, capacity, transmission
Huawei infoX-Message+
success rate, and delay. Secondly, if message
dispatching capabilities are processed with Service Application Application Application Application
extended services, the rapid development container A B C ...
and deployment of new services cannot be
supported.
SEE Service execute environment
An architecture that separates services
from dispatching capabilities can be
adopted to solve these issues. The bottom Converged User Message Policy &
message dispatching layer provides basic Platform
address book preference storage service logic

message storage and dispatching capabilities


Access & interworking
and ensures the stability and reliability of
basic capabilities. The upper independent
messaging service layer provides the
operational environment for value-added Messaging enabler
messaging services and supports their rapid (SMSC/Router/MMSC/IM...)
development and deployment.
SS7/IP SIP
Integrating service “chimneys”
Apart from traditional SMS, MMS UE WAP/WWW Mobile client PC client
and voice mail services, new messaging
forms have been constantly added to the
messaging service family, including instant Fig.1 Logic architecture of Huawei’s Message+ solution
messaging (IM), Email, and video Email.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 42


SOLUTION
Message+: Give your message a big plus

existing network: Each operator has more settings to the new phone. know whether it has been successfully sent
or less deployed some messaging enablers in Emoticon SMS: When a subscriber to the intended recipient. The enhanced
their existing networks, but it is highly risky sends an ordinary text message, the system status report function can supply senders
and difficult to reconstruct these messaging can analyze the key sentences in the with all information related to processing
enablers when implementing a new service. message and automatically convert them to status. Senders can receive status reports
Huawei’s Message + solution adopts a expression icons or images. The Emoticon regarding transmission success or failure
hierarchical architecture that cooperates SMS can enhance enjoyment and and information concerning the recipient
with routers to implement quick service expressiveness for users when messaging such as power status, memory levels,
deployment on existing message enablers. and personalize ordinary text messages. or if the recipient is outside the service
Color SMS: Color SMS is similar area. Additionally, operators can add
Rich value-added messaging services t o Em o t i c o n S M S . T h e s y s t e m c a n supplementary information to status reports
automatically analyze key sentences so that subscribers can simultaneously
Personal information management: in a text message and covert them to receive operators’ business promotions and
Subscribers can install personal multimedia pictures before it is sent messages.
information management software on as an MMS. As many mobile phones Message transfer: The message transfer
their mobile phones and enable personal do not currently support MMS, Color function enables message forwarding or
address book, network messaging, agenda SMS provides an effective way for these carbon copy (CC), and can forward an
synchronization and recovery functions by subscribers to use MMS. incoming message or copy it to another
pressing a given key. If a subscriber changes Enhanced message status report: The mobile number or mailbox. The subscriber
mobile phones, a key press function status report provided by the traditional can set the forwarding/CC conditions
switches the address book, agenda, short SMS system is actually a message delivery and can use a third-party mobile phone to
messages, multimedia messages, pictures, report. The sender is aware that a message receive messages if his or her mobile phone
ringing tones, music, and mobile phone has been successfully submitted, but cannot fails or is powered off.
Message filtering: This function is set
to block spam and malicious messages
Linkage: China Unicom deploys Message+ solution and enable calling number filtering. A
subscriber can blacklist numbers via short
After thorough analyses of market messaging services, Huawei’s Message + messages, Web, or WAP. The system
conditions, technologies and solutions over boasts flexible networking scheme that will filter all messages from blacklisted
the past two years, China Unicom launched f e a t u re s c e n t r a l i ze d d e p l oy m e n t by numbers in a unified manner.
its extended message platform (EMP) province, service provision to all network Message signature: According to
network on a large scale in early 2007. subscribers, and CDMA/GSM integrated subscriber settings, the message signature
The EMP is based on Huawei’s s Message+ networking. This solution will support function can automatically add a
solution and aims to improve the utilization new messaging services in China Unicom’s personalized signature on sent messages
and popularization of new messaging services, CDMA and GSM networks. such as names, nicknames, moods,
and accelerate market exploration of low- Services provided by China Unicom’s locations, mottos, photos, or images.
profit new services. It also seeks to ensure their Message+ include message forwarding, filtering, Ac c o rd i n g t o s t a t i s t i c s f r o m t h e
rapid development and deployment, while warehousing, receipt, signature, and other third renowned telecom and software consulting
minimizing some basic services that affect the party-based extended messaging services. firm, Ovum-RHK, worldwide SMS revenue
development of messaging services such as These have been recognized by China Unicom accounts for 8% of total mobile and 77%
point-to-point (P2P) and any-to-point (A2P). as important growth points in its messaging of data service revenues. At present, SMS
Based on depth knowledge of new service development program. is still growing quickly. In Britain and the
United States, the average SMS growth rate
exceeds 50%. Ovum-RHK also predicts
that messaging service revenues will exceed
USD100 billion by 2009, of which USD45
billion will derive from SMS. As a world-
leading application and software service
provider, Huawei is devoted to making
innovations in the messaging service field
and fully exploring its potential. Huawei
will develop more messaging services
and provide strong technical support for
messaging services.
Editor: Xu Ping x.ping@huawei.com

43 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

Promoting QoS
by specialized optimization
As the traffic from data services continues to increase rapidly, operators are becoming more concerned
about the end users’ perceived level of satisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary for operators to set up a
quality of service (QoS) evaluation system and optimization solutions by using scientific methodologies.
By Zhao Chen

Service optimization is a browse. Unfortunately, the operator lacks


related quantitative measurement criteria,
MMS messages to subscribers. Some
SPs are also illegally obtaining terminal
must and is not sure whether it is possible to numbers. Because there is a large

F
shorten browse delays. There are also quantity of data service equipment, a
or the maintenance personnel frequent service accidents caused by OEM lot of time and effort are spent on doing
who deal with the wireless parts, but an effective alarm mechanism is routine checks, which results in very low
access protocol (WAP) service not yet available. Furthermore, since the maintenance efficiency.
and the multimedia messaging network environment is quite complicated, As mobile data networks are becoming
ser vice (MMS), improving the service system offers poor redundant more mature, an increasing number of
relevant service indexes and the QoS is protection capabilities. In other words, diversified and personalized telecom
becoming a must. For example, complaints it takes a long time to detect and locate services are being introduced. In the
from end users about MMS and WAP service faults, and there is neither an process, the focus of competition is
service failures are increasing, which have efficient fault processing mechanism nor a gradually shifting from price-oriented
been keeping the maintenance personnel guide on customized office data settings. ser vices to value-oriented ser vices.
busy locating the causes of these failures. The service system increasingly has more Networks are now offering integrated
Maintenance personnel also need to internal and external security problems services provided by multiple parts, rather
analyze the causes for local point-to- and lacks effective protective measures. than independent services provided by a
multipoint MMS transmission failures and As a result, many service providers (SPs) single part.
their influence on the overall success rate. are taking advantage of loopholes in the In the new competition environment,
Moreover, end users may complain multimedia messaging service center service experiences of end users will
about long delays when using WAP (MMSC) and are sending unauthorized determine the effect of each service.

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 44


SOLUTION
Promoting QoS by specialized optimization

Therefore, by building up a system that improving user perceptions. A QoS index systematic optimization scheme. Moreover,
can evaluate the performance indexes system is adopted to objectively show end- systematic methodologies and tools can be
of the service network, the operator to-end QoS and convert user perceptions adopted to optimize the existing network
can objectively evaluate the QoS and into quantitative measurement data. This t h a t h a s a c o m p l i c a t e d n e t w o rk i n g
implement oriented optimizations, thus index system comprises end-to-end key topology and a large number of NEs.
improving the satisfaction of users. quality indices (KQIs), which integrates Huawei’s data service network optimization
QoS indexes summarized from specific solution is based on the Policy, Protection,
Combining methodologies measurement indexes in bottom-up mode.
The following is a description of the
Detection, and Response (P2DR) security
model and Policy, Assessment, Design,
and practices KQIs from the bottom layer to the top Implementation, Management, Emergency
layer: On the equipment layer, the KQI is Response, and Education (PADIMEE)
To d e v e l o p a n e v a l u a t i o n a n d based on the NE QoS that relates to the methodology. It can be used to evaluate
optimization system for data service equipment performance. On the network and optimize the network operation
networks, Huawei references in depth layer, the quality of equipment (QoE) is quality and terminal perceptions from
to the evaluation and optimization mapped to the NE QoS on the network various aspects, and finally form a unique
methodologies being employed in the and the inter-NE restrictions. On the Experience, Core equipment, Architecture,
industr y. Designed to solve specific service layer, the QoS is defined as the Maintenance and Environment (E-CAME)
network problems, Huawei’s solution is service QoE, and the KQIs are related model. Contents of evaluation and
an effective and workable combination of to the end-user experiences and QoS optimization include the following areas:
both currently popular theories and service parameters on the service layer. On the terminal perception and KPI, network
practice. user layer, the KQI is the end users’ service r e d u n d a n c y a n d s e c u r i t y, n e t w o r k
experiences, which can be quantified with operations and maintenance, alarm
Using KQIs to evaluate the service usability data. capabilities, and network management
network quality End-to-end KQIs can be used to application; thus covering all the elements
evaluate the service network from the that might influence the QoS and user
To solve problems concerning QoS, and following aspects. In a data ser vice perception.
to improve service indexes, quality, and network, the KQIs manage the perceptions
user perception, Huawei has developed of end users. In this way, the operator can Optimizing QoS through
a data service network evaluation and actively evaluate and optimize network E-CAME
o p t i m i z a t i o n s o l u t i o n . Ba s e d o n a operations, instead of handling complaints
quantitative QoS evaluation system, and passively. The operator can also cooperate Following the idea of using KQIs for
specifically targeting both WAP and MMS with vendors in finding key elements that quantitative evaluation, Huawei worked
services, the solution aims at optimizing influence terminal experiences. Based on out an E-CAME model on the basis of
service indexes and quality, as well as these elements, the operator can form a various elements that affect the QoS. This
model is specifically oriented to end user
experiences and can be used to analyze,
Experiences and
perceptions of end users Great! WAP browse diagnose and evaluate service networks.
becomes faster.
E-CAME stands for Experience, Core
equipment, Architecture, Maintenance
Quality of service network
and Environment. Core equipment
is equivalent to the equipment layer
Data settings described in the KQI theory. Architecture
Experience
O&M capabilities
and Environment correspond to the
Maintenance network layer described in the KQI theory.
System security
NM function Maintenance involves both the network
Architecture Environment External elements layer and the service layer. Experience
Service architecture involves both the service layer and the user
Core equipment layer.
Huawei’s E-CAME model provides
evaluation and optimization measures in
Equipment utilization
the following aspects:
Equipment alarm capabilities Hardware stability Shortening end-to-end delays: This
WAP optimization scheme analyzes
Fig.1 E-CAME data service optimization model time delays in different phases of the
service process and evaluates the key

45 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


Huawei Technologies

elements that influence end-to-end delays. the MMS system by forwarding messages service operation analysis and compliant
Wireless engineers can use the scheme to the SMSC. Moreover, it can improve the processing, and the I2000/AMOS that
to adjust parameters and optimize the redundancy of the dual-system disk array in can monitor OEM parts and give service
wireless bearing quality. According to the WAP system, hence, decreasing the risks performance alarms. All of these tools can
the evaluation and analysis result, the of service interruptions due to disk faults. help operators to improve maintenance
engineers can then adjust WAP gateway This function belongs to the Architecture e f f i c i e n c y a n d re d u c e m a i n t e n a n c e
parameters, simplify the contents to be part of the E-CAME model. complexity. This function belongs to the
delivered to terminals and adjust wireless St re n g t h e n i n g s y s t e m s e c u r i t y : Maintenance part of the E-CAME model.
transaction protocol (WTP) packets, thus The schemes include such aspects as, T h e a b ov e m e n t i o n e d f u n c t i o n s
shortening the transmission delays in the host reinforcement, centralized anti- represent only a portion of the functions
wireless network. This function belongs virus deployment, patch management, p r ov i d e d b y Hu a w e i’s d a t a s e r v i c e
to the Experience part of the E-CAME server operation monitoring, account optimization solution. However, these
model. management, password policy functions can satisfy most operation
Analyzing error codes: Huawei’s data enforcement, and security patching on and maintenance requirements in actual
service optimization solution makes use the application layer. Host reinforcement applications.
of report data and special analysis tools and centralized anti-virus deployment
to analyze key elements that influence effectively combine the passive anti-virus Increasing network
the end-to-end success rate. It also offers
oriented optimization measures. For
and anti-hacker measures with the measure
of reinforcing the operation system and the values through
example, in an office, major elements that database. The overall aim here is to protect specialized optimization
affect the MMS connection rate would the system against virus attacks, hackers
include: a mass quantity of unpicked and data losses caused by operation errors. Huawei’s data service optimization
MMS messages in the services of SPs or They can also be used to trace and shield solution gives full play to the KQI
in group-sending by terminals, and wrong all security holes to ensure safe operations evaluation and optimization methodology.
receiving numbers, and authentication of the computer host and database system. It can be used to set up the E-CAME
failures in the services of SPs. Error code Account management and password policy model and quantitative evaluation criteria,
analysis aims at improving the service enforcement set the authorities of service- so that operators can evaluate the quality
success rate. It belongs to the Experience system accounts according to roles, in of the network supporting MMS and WAP
part of the E-CAME model. order to enable hierarchical management services. It can also be used to customize
Optimizing data setting specifications: on accounts. Each user is assigned only one optimization schemes on site in order
If there is no specification for data settings, account, and shared accounts are deleted. to improve the service network quality
which is a leading cause of poor network Account changes are accordingly managed and measurement indexes. Moreover,
quality, then any data modifications made and audited. This functions belongs to the the solution can increase the perception
by the maintenance personnel could be Architecture part of the E-CAME model. satisfaction of end users, thereby reducing
wrong, since they do not fully understand Enhancing O&M capabilities: Based user complaints. It also makes flexible use
parameter meanings. As a result, accidents on the local maintenance requirements and of maintenance tools, and hence, improves
can easily occur. Huawei’s data service the most common problems that occur maintenance efficiency and effects. In
optimization solution can effectively solve during operation, Huawei’s data service addition, it allows the participation of
this problem by providing customized data optimization solution can optimize the maintenance engineers to extend the
maintenance and analysis capabilities from
setting specifications and updating the configurations of the network management
NEs to the entire network. Therefore,
specifications periodically. Thus it ensures monitoring system, and implement real-
the solution can greatly improve system
correct and efficient data settings, and time monitoring on important services
security and reliability and reduce the
decreasing the probability of manual faults. and equipment performance through
security risks caused by service opening.
This function belongs to the Maintenance performance alarms. It also supports
By implementing the evaluation and
part of the E-CAME model. notifications of major alarms via SMS
optimization solution, operators can
Analyzing and optimizing redundancy: messages. This function belongs to the
optimize their service indexes, improve
Based on the “key part failure analysis” Core equipment part of the E-CAME
user perceived satisfaction, and facilitate
methodology, Huawei’s data ser vice model.
the growth of both maintenance efficiency
optimization solution can analyze each Huawei also provides a “Maintenance
and long-term operation benefits. They
telecom system and identify system Assistance” series of tools, which include:
can also make use of some optimization
parts that have single-spot fault risks or automatic inspection tool, CDR analysis
a n d m a i n t e n a n c e t o o l s t o i n c re a s e
insufficient redundancy. It also provides tool, automatic faults collection tool,
implementation efficiency and standardize
countermeasures. For example, the solution log information collection tool, and
optimization measures.
can implement emergent database backup graphic presentation tool. Moreover,
in the MMS system, and share the loads of Huawei provides specialist systems for Editor: Xue Hua xuehua@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 46


LEADING EDGE
Mobile messaging services: Where next?

Mobile messaging services:


Where next?
Introduced as a new value-added service in the mid-1990s, unparalleled success followed the inception of
the short message service (SMS) across mobile networks. While representing a triumph in terms of its global
adoption, SMS to date remains faced with numerous questions and problems. For example, what is its potential?
How will mobile messaging services develop in the future?
By Wang Deng

Trapped in a bottleneck

M
obile messaging services were first
deployed in the mid-1990s, with
the SMS introduced to mobile
networks as a value-added service.
Prior to the formal deployment
of SMS, the only comparable communications’
service was radio paging. As mobile communication
networks quickly developed, SMS developed at a
staggering rate, which in turn led to a rapid rise
in the number of third-party mobile value-added
service providers (SPs). Its logical commercial
development has culminated in a holistic service
industry chain for mobile value-added services that
now encompasses end users, operators, equipment
suppliers, SPs and content providers (CPs). The
meteoric rise of SMS was inversely matched by the
decline of the previously pervasive radio paging
service, which has since faded into obsolescence.
After nearly 10 years of development and market
exposure, SMS has emerged into the second largest
basic mobile service after voice services and a key
source of income for mobile operators.
However, the pace of its rise did not mask its
inherent defects. SMS remained based on traditional
SS7 service signaling bearing and supported limited
content in the sole form of text messages. This
necessitated the introduction of upgraded services

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s u c h a s E n h a n c e d Me s s a g e Se r v i c e saved by the system nor copied to SMSCs in order to provide Enhanced


(EMS) and Multimedia Message Service an external mailbox. A mobile phone SMS.
(MMS). At the same time, the successful possesses a limited memory, but most users Operators and equipment suppliers
Internet messaging services - Email and would prefer sent and received messages may encounter a host of new problems
Instant Messaging (IM) - were introduced to be automatically saved by the system, when developing this service. Increasing
to mobile networks. Consumers and or copied to an external mailbox for future the amount of service logic on an SMSC,
operators were hopeful that these mobile viewing. Unfortunately, such a service for example, can degrade basic service
messaging services could mirror the success doesn’t exist. p e r f o r m a n c e , w h i l e g re a t e r s y s t e m
of SMS. Personalized characteristics cannot be complexity could delay new ser vice
Seemingly more advanced than SMS, added. Some users would like the system delivery. As the GSM SMS standard
these mobile messaging services have to add personalized characteristics to a d o p t s a s e n d e r’s h o m e S M S C f o r
indeed made some headway, but have transmitted messages according to content, message transmission, receiver-based
failed to topple SMS’s dominant position. for instance signatures or emoticons. A services lack the same efficiency and
This is in part because their usage has standard SMS system cannot provide this effectiveness. A sender’s SMSC does not
caused numerous problems for users function, and can only utilize service codes pass the receiver’s home SMSC and thus
because of the need to shift between to reroute an SMS message to an external some receiver-subscribed services, such as
multiple messaging clients. As a result, SP for processing. This might interfere call forwarding, cannot be triggered.
the provision of a convergent messaging with normal SMS processes and result in The best method to solve these
service has become a popular issue in the decline in user experiences and satisfaction. problems rests with isolating the enhanced
telecommunications industry. The sender cannot know the status service processing capability from the
Aiming to provide a unified storage and of the sent message. The SMS adopts basic SMSC by referring to intelligent
display environment for various messaging the store and forward message mode in network (IN) principles. For users who
services, convergence will simplify the which the system will cache a message have subscribed to Enhanced SMS, the
simultaneous use of multiple messaging before attempting to resend it later if SMSC can for ward messages to the
services. However, given that MMS, IM the receiver is powered off or outside the Enhanced SMS platform for subsequent
and convergent messaging are all based on service area. During this time, senders do processing, hence minimizing the impact
messaging technologies and, without the not receive successful delivery notification. Enhanced SMS has on basic P2P services.
support from auxiliary bearer networks The short message service center (SMSC) User subscriptions for Enhanced SMS can
and the macro business environment, only supplies notification regarding final be handled by the business and operation
messaging services have all encountered status when a message is finally delivered support system (BOSS), and duplicated
developmental bottlenecks. or timed out, and does not provide to the local database of the SMSC.
intermediate status information. Alternatively, subscriptions can be saved in
Further exploiting SMS Advertisements cannot be added a centralized database or a home location
potential according to certain rules. Being a new
media form, mobile communications is
register (HLR).
While it is suggested that the standard
As it is difficult to change the macro a favorite tool for advertisers wishing to interface should be enabled by using the
business environment in the short term, it utilize it as an effective marketing tool. expanded SMPP protocol, no standard
is more expedient for operators to revisit In accordance with certain rules, some interface yet exists between the Enhanced
the possibilities of SMS. Does this mature operators wish to add advertisements to SMS platform and SMSC. Therefore,
service still have potential? Basically, the SMS, but this is not supported by the some existing SMSCs may not support
answer is yes. However, in a standard SMS standard system. service triggering interface reconstruction,
solution that excludes content bearing T h e a b ov e a r e o n l y s o m e o f t h e in which case a new SMS Router can be
capabilities, the following problems require requirements that cannot be satisfied by established to trigger Enhanced SMS.
solutions. the current SMS system. The mentioned We believe that the Enhanced SMS
Some basic value-added services cannot types of services are being temporarily solution can further exploit the potential
be enabled. The now fully mature SMS value- referred to as Enhanced SMS in order of SMS and bring new vitality to the
added service is triggered by service codes, to distinguish them from basic point-to- service.
and each major operator’s network is likely point (P2P) and traditional third-party SP
to have thousands of SPs providing services. It is anticipated that Enhanced How to develop non-SMS
va r i o u s S M S va l u e - a d d e d s e r v i c e s .
However, some voice-based basic value-
SMS will both improve customer
satisfaction and, given the huge number
messaging services?
added services cannot be enabled in of SMS subscribers, deliver considerable MMS
SMS, including call forwarding and do- profits for operators. In fact, many
not-disturb. operators and equipment suppliers have MMS adopts IP transmission and,
Messages cannot be automatically already optimized and reconstructed their in comparison with SMS, MMS

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 48


LEADING EDGE
Mobile messaging services: Where next?

provides richer content bearing capabilities and has Force (IETF) are still working out specifications.
consequently solved numerous problems such as In a broad sense, Mobile Email can include MMS,
message transmission from the GSM SMS home but prior to finalization of the technical standard,
location. Despite its advantages, the development Mobile Email refers to the Email transmission via
of MMS is unsatisfactor y. As a result of 3G mobile phones that employs a user’s Internet Email
popularization and EDGE technologies, network address rather than a mobile phone number. Mobile
bandwidth is no longer a barrier restricting MMS Email can carry a wider range of content including
development. So, why does MMS remain stagnant? appendices in various file formats. After PushMail
To turn this negative situation around, we analyzed - the active Push function - is added, Mobile Email
the major problems in MMS development and delivers a similar user experience to SMS and MMS.
proposed a series of countermeasures. As such, some experts predict that the Mobile Email
Today’s communications market is replete with service will replace SMS and MMS and emerge as
different brand and model mobile phones. Some the next-generation messaging service.
cannot adapt to certain media formats, leading to Although Mobile Email became a hotspot in the
an unsatisfactory service experience. By constantly mobile messaging field in 2005, it did not develop
improving mobile phone functions and by adding as quickly as many people expected. Subscriber
content adaptation capabilities to the multimedia quantity and traffic are far less than those of SMS,
message service center (MMSC), this problem will and, in most areas, less than those of MMS. Two
be gradually solved. reasons that are attributed to this trend are the lack
Si n c e i t i s f a r m o r e c o m p l i c a t e d t o e d i t of international standards and the excessively high
multimedia content than text content, most users are requirements that the service places on mobile
unaccustomed to composing multimedia messages phones.
on mobile phones, and this largely explains the Mobile Email is mainly oriented to high-
sluggish growth in P2P MMS traffic. According to end business users who can use the service to
some operators, an increase in MMS traffic generally conveniently transmit Emails without using a PC or
derives from any-to-point (A2P) services. By sending the Internet. Messaging communications between
entertainment or greeting multimedia messages to mobile phones is not a major concern of the service
mobile subscribers via A2P services, an operator can and, for operators who have deployed SMS/MMS
trigger mobile subscribers to forward multimedia at scale, Mobile Email market positioning might
services. describe an expedient business direction given
A prime example is China Mobile’s mobile that it will mirror MMS should it enter the low-
newspaper service, launched in 2006. Well received end market. If it does, however, it will only divide
by consumers, this new service quickly attracted SMS/MMS traffic rather than creating an additional
many subscribers and was selected as a star service revenue stream.
for China Mobile in the year of its introduction. In the long term, when the mobile phones of
Being a major mobile newspaper bearing mode, most users eventually provide as strong functions as
MMS demonstrated a range of advantages and was a those of PCs, regardless of whether operators like it
major stimulator of traffic. or not, Mobile Email may challenge SMS/MMS.
A significant factor hindering the development of
MMS is its current charging system. Most operators Mobile IM
presently charge MMS by the number of messages
The most prominent advantage of Mobile IM
and so a short text MMS message receives the
is that it responds to the status of a given peer
same charge as a small-movie MMS message. This
user before message transmission. Internet-based
is obviously unreasonable, and operators should
IM is hugely successful and enjoys enormous
implement flexible charging policies according to
global usage. In 2000, IM was introduced to
message content.
mobile communications and underpinned by the
It can be concluded that operators are likely to
mainstream technical standard Instant Messaging
encounter many problems if operating MMS in the
and Presence Service (IMPS), established by Wireless
same way as SMS, and MMS features should be
Village. Similar to Mobile Email, Mobile IM has
given full play in order to enhance development.
not been widely applied in recent years and most IM
Mobile Email users view the service as supplementary to Internet
IM, using it to interwork with Internet IM systems
No definitive technical standard for Mobile such as MSN and Yahoo!
Email currently exists, and both the Open Mobile Unlike Mobile Email, Mobile IM consumers
Alliance (OMA) and the Internet Engineering Task are mostly young people and the general chat-

49 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


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After nearly 10 years of development and market


exposure, SMS has emerged into the second largest
basic mobile service after voice services and a key
source of income for mobile operators.

based service content reflects this. The


development of Mobile IM is restricted
to access a given type of message using a
variety of means.
CPM plans the future
because the client running Mobile IM The convergent messaging processing
In 2006, a number of leading mobile
places stringent requirements on mobile platform can reduce the number of
operators and equipment suppliers
terminals, and, while IM is free on the messages forwarded between different
formed a partnership in order to establish
Internet, Mobile IM is charged in the same messaging systems and can improve
a Convergent IP Messaging (CPM)
way as SMS. Coupled with packet traffic resource utilization, thus reducing
workgroup inside the OMA. Specifically,
charges, the service is too expensive to be capital expenditure (CAPEX). While
Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, Sprint,
viable for young people who wish to use conveniently enabling end experiences,
Cingular and China Mobile joined
it for fun and entertainment. Moreover, the convergent messaging processing
with Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei. The
many mobile phones have small display platform is unnecessary. In fact, most,
workgroup aims to remove the silos between
screens and the radio data transmission if not all, experiences can be converged
traditional messaging services caused by
lacks the stability of fixed networks, thus via an independent message convergence
technical differences, and provide users
delivering for many a very poor user platform, a unified portal or a unified
with a smooth, unified service experience.
experience. mobile messaging client.
The workgroup is also determined to
Although the number of users using Comparatively speaking, operators’
define specifications for a reusable general
special Mobile IM clients is slowly greatest concern remains messaging service
messaging function frame for the future, and
increasing, more users communicate with convergence. In addition to SMS, MMS,
support IP data services based on messaging
the IM system via SMS, testifying further Mobile Email and Mobile IM, a convergence
functions. The new CPM messaging service
to the strong vitality of SMS. platform may also subsume Voice and Video
parameters will integrate the common
W h e n M M S , Mo b i l e E m a i l a n d Mailbox services. The most prominent
functions of existing messaging services and
Mobile IM are applied at scale, the difficulty in implementing convergent
provide convergent communication services
necessity for convergent messaging - both messaging occurs when attempting to
based on the session initiation protocol
in terms of a processing platform and integrate different vendors’ message platforms.
(SIP). The CPM specifications will mature
end experience - begins to emerge. The Due to the lack of standard interface
and be perfected in two to three years. With
processing platform is technically unified specifications, most existing convergent
the joint efforts of operators and equipment
to process various types of messages, and messaging solutions are incomplete or
vendors, the CPM will create a brighter
end experience encompasses a range of defective. As multiple messaging services
future for messaging services.
functional requirements such as unified currently coexist, convergent messaging
storage, message display, and the capability remains a long-term research task. Editor: Liu Zhonglin liuzhonglin@huawei.com

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 50


LEADING EDGE
Fresh mobile application technologies

Fresh mobile application


technologies By Wang Wei

Diversified new mobile


applications

T
he current innovative telecom era
is rich in nascent and burgeoning
technologies, services and business
models. A continuous drive for
convergence is drawing these
irrevocably together, with a cross-industry
conglomeration of resources, capabilities,
technologies and applications creating new
customer values and business opportunities.
In the coming 3 to 5 years, convergence in the
mobile, Internet, media, retailing and finance
fields will afford tremendous opportunities.
Convergence of the mobile and media fields
will culminate in an array of new applications
such as mobile newspaper, mobile TV, classified
information service and advertising platform.
Examples in terms of advertising include
embedded, information associated, allied, benefit
exchange, and content cooperation.
Mobile and Internet convergence will result in
mobile phone searches, wireless access protocol
(WAP) advertising, mobile themed communities,
mobile blogs, and online mobile gaming.
Convergence of the mobile, retailing and
finance fields will see the emergence of mobile
formats for E-business, payments, banking, and
securities.
Global Internet Trends, a survey published
by Morgan Stanley in April 2006, predicted that
new market opportunities for mobile applications
will appear in the fields as illustrated in Fig. 1.
The above areas as predicted by Morgan

51 NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36


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Stanley encompass a range of fields Diversified mobile applications have parameters can be defined between
including hardware (such as terminals and visited greater requirements on security, different fingers and operations in order to
accessories), software and services. privacy and confirmed identity, especially accomplish short-cut startup and dialing.
in terms of key mobile areas such as
New mobile application payments, E-business and community Action awareness
technologies on the rise
applications. Insufficient protective At a time when user experience
mechanisms may result in the fraudulent describes a primar y industr y focus,
To enable various mobile applications, use of mobile terminals if lost or stolen, ordinary subscribers are more aware of
a technological push has occurred over the with huge financial consequences. entertainment value, emulation effects,
Fingerprint identification technology convenience and personalization, as
past few years. provides an effective solution mitigating opposed to technical superiority.
such concerns. With this in mind, Action awareness is
Radio frequency identification
Fingerprint identification in mobile an action recognition technology designed
A c c o r d i n g t o M o r g a n S t a n l e y’s phones installs a fingertip collection chip to enhance user experience via intelligent
report, mobile payment will become on the motherboard of an existing mobile response mechanisms to body movements
an increasingly prominent feature of phone and a fingerprint identification such as head shaking, finger clicking, and
applications, and RFID is the key processor in the main control program. arm circling, to which the technology
technology for enabling mobile E-business A mobile phone can collect and responds with pre-set operations.
and mobile payment. identify fingerprints of a given user, At present, it is widely utilized in
RFID enables information transfer thus controlling a phone’s operation, or online games. For example, the player of a
via touch-less perception and automatic enabling fingerprint identification for traditional tennis game can only serve or
identification. Three integral characteristics mobile services. receive the ball by operating a game pad
are featured: digital ID, touch-less Compared with traditional security in a manner far removed from the real life
perception and information storage. technologies such as PIN, fingerprinting actions. The adoption of action awareness
Digital ID can be used to uniquely identify has many advantages given it forms an technology controls the timing, strength
a person or entity across the information unbreakably individual password. World- and angle of each hit by analyzing a player’s
network. Touch-less perception enables leading mobile phone magnates have arm movements in a way that mirrors the
convenient service use, including punch- invested hugely in the development of actual game.
card operations. Information storage is fingerprint identification mobile phones After integration with mobile terminals,
designed to store information regarding and have launched numerous handsets action awareness technology can also
subscribers, services and RFID label release that support fingerprint technology. deliver new operational experiences.
in the RFID label, while also providing an In addition to protecting security, In terms of enabling technologies, the
information encryption mechanism. privacy and identity, this technology also accelerometer and the gyroscope can
Re c e n t ye a r s h a ve s e e n t h e w i d e provides navigation and click/double- be integrated in the terminal to three-
application of RFID in logistics and click capabilities, which render it a solid dimensionally perceive a user’s body
retailing, and mobile payments are set to substitute for the direction and OK keys on movements. The software technology
become a significant application field for mobile terminals. Moreover, corresponding can be coupled with a video camera that
RFID. A complete RFID-based mobile
payment system should include at least the
following components: mobile terminals
that support RFID, point of sale (POS)
machines that can read RFID, mobile Converged services Video
communications network, payment Paid content
Games
centers, banks and call agents (CAs). Community
Cameras Messaging
RFID-based mobile payment supports Search
online payments, punch-card shopping, LBS
Advertising Connected devices
punch-card pay-in, and E-ticketing. As Music
the RFID label can store information, the Payments
system also supports small sum offline Enterprise application Converged devices Browsers
payments such as travel card purchases. It Telematics Enabling platforms
is possible that the near future will herald Gambling Infrastructure services
mobile terminals that support RFID,
thus replacing credit cards as a new and
prevalent payment method. Fig.1 Fields involved in new market opportunities for mobile applications

Fingerprint identification

NOV 2007 . ISSUE 36 52


LEADING EDGE
Fresh mobile application technologies

recognizes a user’s body movements. University, stunned the audience when he keys can be used to control a zoom-in and
Although cost effective, these measures are demonstrated the applications of multi- out function, and a specific area selected to
still restricted by certain limitations. touch technology. enlarge or reduce. Moreover, the browser
Samsung has launched a mobile phone To date, multi-touch technology has provides a thumbnail image feature in
that supports action awareness technology, been adopted in mobile terminals such which an enlarged section of a web page
allowing users to draw figures in the as Apple’s iPhone. The iPhone provides triggers a corresponding thumbnail image
air to indicate the number to be dialed photo browse management that allows in the left top of the display to indicate
and to shake the phone twice in order the user to lightly touch the display in its position in relation to the whole Web
to complete a call or delete a message. order to generate a full screen image. Users page.
DoCoMo is set to launch a new handset can zoom in or out by touch, and apply Deepfish is an adept mobile browser
that can be operated by being inclined, images as display backgrounds. Possessing that enables the same functions as a
rotated, or moved to the left or right. no keys, multi-finger use enables the desktop PC on the small display of a
This product’s intended use is mobile same operations as traditional key control mobile terminal. The rich content of a
gaming, map browsing, and Internet functions. The iPhone technology has both website is retained and so are file formats.
surfing. KTF recently released a digital surprised and attracted a large customer Browsing integrity is maintained, and
multimedia broadcasting (DMB) digital base. Many other mobile phone vendors the technology is compatible with most
TV mobile phone in which the display have launched mobile phones supporting websites. It also achieves small traffic
is automatically switched horizontally or multi-touch technology, heralding its volumes, rapid browsing speeds, flexible
vertically by rotating the phone. In the arrival as a new technical triumph in zooming functions and mouse emulation
music playback mode, users can shake the mobile terminal development. when clicking on hyperlinks. These
phone to change music programs. combined features spearhead a new
The integration of action awareness Mobile browser technical developmental direction in the
technology and mobile terminals is mobile browser market.
Personalized, rich media and interactive
not simply a substitute for keys or the
expressions are widely used on the Internet.
provision of a supplementary input mode;
As mobile applications gradually converge Conclusion
instead it represents the rise of a new body
with the Internet, users will experience the
language era in which users can express Since they were first introduced,
same experiences on mobile terminals. To
themselves in more natural, fluid and mobile applications have been perfectly
facilitate this, the technical development
expressive forms. integrated with cutting-edge technologies,
of mobile browsers is vital and probably
likely given the fierce competition that and each technical innovation drives
Multi-touch mobile applications a step forward. At
has characterized the mobile-browser
As mobile applications increase in market since its beginning. The Safari present, though, mobile applications
complexity and are used by greater browser in Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft’s still face many challenges. These include
numbers of people, direct, intelligent and Deepfish browser have set new industry the complicated but immature industry
multi-mode man/machine interaction standards and intensified competition. chain, the diversified nature of radio access
become more desirable. Multi-touch The trial version of Deepfish, for example, technologies, and the fact that mobile
technology reflects the finger movements has demonstrated numerous fundamental terminals are still based on a variety
in a way that can offer users a more “real” technological improvements. of hardware platforms and operating
experience. Compared with desktop PCs, mobile systems. In the long-term, constant
The result of combining man-machine terminals have many disadvantages: technical innovation in hardware, software
interaction and computer hardware smaller displays, less bandwidth and and services, together with continuous
technologies, multi-touch technology memory, and lower processing capabilities. breakthroughs in user ideas and
describes a touch display with multiple It therefore remains extremely difficult experiences, will yield a mobile applications
touch points. Differing from traditional for mobile terminals to give a similar era that will become so intertwined with
touch displays that only permit single browsing experience to that by PCs. The daily life that it will fundamentally alter
finger operations, multi-touch allows Deepfish browser adopts Proxy technology our work, entertainment, consumption,
simultaneous operations with multiple and the Deepfish server to compress Web business and social behaviors.
fingers, and even simultaneous operations pages, which reduces traffic and increases Indeed, we look for ward to the
by multiple users. This operation mode transmission speeds. increasingly innovative experiences
has completely overturned the traditional D e e p f i s h a l s o s u p p o r t s ZO O M delivered by mobile applications that
single-finger touch concept and can be technology. When browsing a Web page, a will realize the now well established goal
used to handle more complicated tasks. given user might initially see a full view of of convenient, affordable, reliable and
In the 2006 Technology, Entertainment the Web page proportionately reduced in effective communication services that can
and Design Conference (TED), Jefferson size, thus giving an unclear image due to be accessed any time, any place.
H a n , a r e s e a r c h e r f r o m Ne w Yo r k the small mobile phone screen. Direction Editor: Liu Zhonglin liuzhonglin@huawei.com

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