GSMA-led Rich Communications Suite may be too little too late, says Movius
Despite positive work in thwarting the demise of SMS revenues by the GSMA-led Rich Communications Suite (RCS), value-added communication company Movius believes it should go further and enable interaction with existing OTT networks.
RCS has been designed to deliver an experience beyond voice and SMS and reduce revenue losses by providing consumers with services already offered by OTT players: instant messaging or chat, live video sharing and file transfer across any device. For operators, RCS is being billed as a technology to strengthen relationships with customers and harness further revenue opportunities from advanced personal communications.
Amit Modi, senior vice president and general manager of products and technology at Movius, said RCS is a step in the right direction but is too focused on the network and needs to be more about the user.
'Billions of dollars of SMS revenue is being lost each year to OTT messaging services because of smartphones. Operators must act now to combat this loss of control. Right now carriers are working to make the data pipe bigger, and in doing so, helping OTT providers, but with relatively limited benefit to their own bottom line. It is our vision that the operator acts as a central point connecting all social networks together and take back the control,' said Modi.
Modi thinks that the key to operators regaining control lies in seamlessly connecting the IP-based advanced personal communications already offered by successful existing OTT networks.
'The key is in allowing someone on Google Talk to video conference with their friend on Facebook, send a file to someone on MSN Messenger, or instant message to Skype. If the operator is providing a single simple user interface enabling this connection at the hands of the consumer then the potential is huge. It's a win-win for the customer and the operator.
'While the RCS system is a great step forward, operators would be better served by offering an integrated open solution that allows customers to connect to any network via one portal. OTT solutions already offer all of the applications of RCS but without network limitations,' added Modi.
Later this year Movius will launch a major solution to help operators enter the advanced personal communications messaging market and take back control of the data pipe.
