By Jim Saunders, EVP digital communications at Xura
Mobile operators are always looking for new ways to monetise their networks and better leverage their important subscriber asset. Having been challenged by the over the top (OTT) app providers for a number of years now, they need to find ways to counter the impact on their business and revenue streams with new services that are compelling and relevant to their customers.
Encouraging news
The launch of the Universal Profile by the GSMA, working with its partners, is a fundamental step forward for the mobile industry, creating a standardised interoperability framework in which operators can deliver an advanced and enriched messaging experience, with common features, that are consistent across providers and can compete successfully against the OTT players in the mobile space.
At Xura, we welcome this news and believe an industry-agreed set of features, including group chat, audio messaging, and video sharing, and improved technical enablers will not only simplify both product development and operator deployment of Advanced Messaging but will allow them to scale as required.
This, alongside other moves in the industry, including Samsung’s recent acquisition of RCS infrastructure and services provider, NewNet, represents encouraging news for the industry, demonstrating real confidence in the future of advanced messaging and its ability to deliver even better value for money to subscribers.
Coming to fruition
After ten years of talk, Google’s Universal RCS proposition was in many ways the catalyst for the advances made in recent months that have seen the Universal Profile come to fruition. But increasingly, mobile operators across the globe have a number of choices when it comes to offering their subscriber base a consistent messaging service across a range of platforms and devices. With more players coming into the market, a common profile helps operators move to IP messaging with a common subset of features that will interwork across operator networks.
By enabling a more consistent service through standardisation, regardless of operating system or handset, operators can now offer messaging capabilities with content that will add value to the subscriber experience, while simultaneously improving their bottom line.
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