internet, AOL built its business at fi rst
on a “walled garden” of content. But that
was not what people wanted and it was
not possible for AOL to stop people getting
what they wanted, so their business
model evolved.
Our vision within NeuStar is a world
where people can message each other
regardless of service provider, network
or location. Of course it will take time
to achieve that, but the lesson of SMS
cannot be forgotten. How much revenue
would operators be making out of SMS
now without operator interoperability?
NeuStar is working on a long term vision
of an Interaction Framework. Th is
starts life today as a presence enabled
address book but will become so much
more. It will become a central location
for a mobile user to access all his diff erent
communities.
Like everyone else, I use a number
of diff erent tools to communicate with
people: IM, SMS, voice, email, social
networking sites and others. On each
occasion I consider my context and the
context of the person I am communicating
with and make decisions based
around that.
I am a member of LinkedIn for business
networking but Facebook for social
interaction. I may want to keep, for example,
my gaming or dating community
closed and manage what information
that community sees about me. Th ey
are examples of diff erent communities
which I can manage personally. Th is
human behaviour will not change, so at
NeuStar we have tasked ourselves with
making it as easy as possible for people
to access their communities from one
place within the mobile phone, and
secondly to make it as simple as possible
for people to communicate within and
between communities.
By developing this framework for
contextual communications, we believe
people will interact more, providing new
opportunities for all parties to generate
revenues and creating choice for the
consumer.
Mobile Communications International | First for news, best for business
MIke Hibberd
Editorial Director, MCI
Users want to access established IM and
social network services like MSN, AOL,
Yahoo, Skype, MySpace and Facebook.
Technologies like Wireless Village and
IMS are completely opaque to them:
Th ey know the brands and that their
buddies are there, they don’t give two
hoots for technology. Clearly they don’t
want to switch operator just to get IM.
Every carrier should provide this.
So, how will you ensure that users get
what they want, and still secure a sizeable
revenue for operators? Is IM really a threat
to SMS, or is it just an industry-wide scare,
that both operators and equipment providers
(which want to sell IMS and other
telecom-only stuff ) nurture?
AB, Abiro
AS: Two questions are raised here. First
is the issue of the user experience, which
is absolutely critical to the mobile industry
in 2008. Th e second is the question
of whether IM is a threat to SMS.
You are right to highlight that users
don’t care for technology. It has to work
and work the way they want it to and
that is that. If they already have their
friends in an existing community such
as Windows Live, Yahoo or Facebook
they shouldn’t be penalised to get access
but it should be given to them in as
simple a way as possible. I think this will
be a key issue for the industry this year,
driven partly by the iPhone off ering an
alternative user experience, but mostly
by users who have already had one highly
featured phone and may be reluctant
to buy another unless someone can give
them a better reason than more pixels,
more features, more complexity. Th e
technology needs to just work and this is
one of the reasons why NeuStar focuses
so much on understanding people and
how they interact with technology when
bringing services to market.
Is IM a threat to SMS? SMS has been a
huge success. Operators have benefi ted
from the revenues for many years. Now
the service has matured and become
Allen Scott
General Manager, NeuStar
more price sensitive. Operators know
that, despite more SMS messages being
sent, lower revenues are being generated.
Whilst SMS will continue to contribute
signifi cant revenues for the operators this
will and has in some markets started to
decline. Th is revenue has to be replaced
and it is a short term view to disregard
anything that helps to replace it.
So I do not see IM as a threat to SMS,
quite the opposite, because IM can help
to grow messaging ARPU. Th ere is also
some evidence with some operators that
users send more text messages aft er they
start using IM. Th is is because IM conversations
oft en lead to private SMS and
voice exchanges amongst participants.
How do we ensure users get what they
want and still secure revenues for operators?
By delivering compelling services
that have been well thought out and solve a
human need. I believe mobile IM does this
today and with our Interaction Framework
NeuStar is best placed to do so in the future.
Will Instant Messaging make it easier
for spammers to fi nd and target you
with their advertising messages?
IvN, Telecom Namibia
AS:Spam will always be a problem. As
long as one person in a million responds
to a Viagra email, the emails will continue
to turn up.
In an enclosed environment like IM I
actually think it is less likely that people
will be spammed. I get the occasional
text spam but rarely receive IM spam,
indeed if I did I would not respond or
close the conversation. While mobile IM
can, I believe, play its part in providing
opportunities for mobile advertising,
I do not think IM will make it easy for
spammers. On the contrary, users will
be able to control advertising made to
them and switch it on when they want
it, for example when they are ready to
shop. NeuStar is working with trusted
partners who will safely manage users
ID and presence information to ensure
users enjoy their mobile experience.
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