Adopting CEM help convert OTT threat to data revenue opportunities for mobile operators Today, smart phone users demand the high standards of excellence and efficiency from their telecom operators. The rise in expectations of an enhanced user experience with multiple mobile devices has increased the elasticity of demand among mobile customers. This means that many are prepared to switch operators if they don’t get what they want. As a result, operators around the world risk losing nearly 40 perce...

Digital revolution transforms the global BFSI industry The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. It is poised to become the biggest contributor to world economic growth with several micro and macro level changes in the global financial circuit. Owing to the rising pressures for delivering accurate, error proof services to its customers, there arises a greater need for IT enabled ...

Ramping up 4G globally Deloitte predicts that global revenues from 4G are likely to reach £60 billion by 2014, with more than 200 operators running networks in 75 countries. In the UK, O2 is to launch its 4G offering, finally bringing competition to EE. China Mobile is planning to spend $30.1 billion on its network this year with about a quarter of that amount earmarked for TD-LTE technology. Deloitte predicts that 4G subscriber numb...

Emphasis on a unique user experience and an enriched application ecosystem are amongst the top smart India – the third largest smartphone market in the world is rapidly surging towards its thrust in becoming the numero uno smartphone market of the world. With an impressive growth aspect of over 129 per cent accrued over the last year, the Indian smartphone market is positive on its path of capturing the biggest market reach in times to come. Accentuating this growth of the smartphone sector is the highly ...

IT Trends to look out for in 2014 Information Technology [IT] tends to see the bright sun in 2014 in the areas of cloud services for SMBs and individual consumers, big data analysis and visualization tools and techniques, augmented reality, and last but not the least internet of things [IoT]. Cloud services has been around for a while and was majorly the area that was of focus for large enterprises however, with more and more consumers becom...

Lab-based performance testing: essential capability for a data-hungry market The wireless market in India stands on the brink of dramatic change. The nature of mobile traffic is mutating, with voice traffic growth slowing down and growth in the use of data and value-added services speeding up, especially video. The Mobile Economy India 2013 Report by the GSMA predicts mobile broadband services will continue to grow in India with 3G and 4G adoption increasing by 31 per cent per year �...

Lessons from a start-up failure For every startup success story you hear in startupville there exists thousands of startups that fail due to lack of funding or bad pivoting or bad management or bad luck or a combination of them. Success owes its success to doing the right thing at the right place and the right moment but it also boils down to bailing out of a potentially bad position by recognizing early signs of startup failureSo, at the ris...

The sector seems to be limping back to normalcy The competition intensity in the telecom industry has led to frequent tariff cuts, eroding operator margins. The debt-laden operators have been reporting quarter-on-quarter losses for the past couple of years, making it extremely difficult to raise fresh funds for further expansion. Now, however, the sector seems to be limping back to normalcy. In the quarter ended June 30, 2013, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular...

How important is your keyboard to you? In just over two decades of their existence in the country, mobile phones have evolved from being devices to flaunt your social stature to becoming the bare necessity of life. Launched at an exorbitant cost of more than Rs 50,000 for a basic device which could make and receive calls, today’s mobile phones are no less than super-computers in their own rights. Today’s mobile phones enable its user to multi-ta...

Misconceptions about electromagnetic fields from mobile phone towers and public health Across the world, mobile telecommunications has been recognised as a driver for speedy socio-economic development of a nation. The government of India also recognises that the provision of a world class telecommunications infrastructure has significantly contributed to the country’s economic growth. The role of mobile telecommunications as a national growth engine is also exemplified through enhanced access t...

How will Apple's latest offerings fare? Apple recently introduced its new flagship iPhone 5S and the less-expensive, plastic-shelled iPhone 5C and if history is an indicator – the iPhone 5 sold 74.6 million units in the second half of last year, up 38 per cent from the previous year – there will be a lot of consumers running out to buy the new devices. Yes, the initial reaction to Apple’s news seems to be a bit more muted than previous annou...

The customer experience performance metric: Bridging the gap between the actual and the perceived Customer experience is all about the perceptions and related emotional value caused by the most recent, historical, one-off or cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, channels, systems, products or services.  Customers expect to have a consistent, connected, personalised, and efficient experience across all phases of the customer lifecycle and across all their channel interactions. Tod...

Rational spectrum pricing is the biggest motivation for operator participation in spectrum auctions It took two unsuccessful auctions and huge notional revenue losses for the government to realise that rational spectrum pricing is the biggest motivation for operator participation. Consequently, TRAI suggested a sharp decline in the pan-Indian reserve price for the spectrum auction scheduled to be held in end-2013 or early 2014. For the 1800 MHz band, the bid price for pan-Indian spectrum has been reduced from...

How to do substantial digital marketing Digital marketing is about reaching, attracting and converting customers leveraging the newer and much more sophisticated (than traditional media) technology mediums. It uses, whether online or offline, various devices, and multiple interfaces – social, websites, mobile apps, etc. Amongst other things, digital marketing enables precise targeting and positioning, delivers contextual experiences and interactions...

SmartIVR: Reinventing the Enterprise IVR releases new UI and design SmartIVR, the popular enterprise IVR solution by Knowlarity Communications has something brewing up behind the scene, released in a private beta the product is getting a complete makeover starting from enhanced Search capabilities to an amazing new look and feel. The revamped UI makes SmartIVR accessible to even those with no technical knowledge to get a supercharged way to manage entire call management mak...

Mobile to emerge as alternate entertainment screen in 2013 As we close 2012, it gives us immense pleasure to be part of MVAS industry; that is witnessing a galloping growth into the next year and together we are creating an ecosystem where subscribers remain engaged with the MVAS and the app of their choice. MVAS industry in India has come a long way since its inception. With India today, having the second-largest mobile phone user base and the third fastest growing mob...

Mobile users may have to wait a little longer to access the benefits of free nationwide roaming Minister for communications and IT KapilSibal has affirmed that mobile users will not have to pay any roaming charges from 2013. The government had, in May this year, announced the “one nation, one licence” regime as part of the National Telecom Policy, 2012. The aim of the policy is to abolish roaming charges and allow mobile subscribers to use the same number across the country without having to pay any ex...

Mobile users may have to wait a little longer to access the benefits of free nationwide roaming Minister for communications and IT KapilSibal has affirmed that mobile users will not have to pay any roaming charges from 2013. The government had, in May this year, announced the “one nation, one licence” regime as part of the National Telecom Policy, 2012. The aim of the policy is to abolish roaming charges and allow mobile subscribers to use the same number across the country without having to pay any ex...

IPv6 : The summer it finally happened A decade old guessing game finally came to an end in mid-2012. America was supposed to be hopelessly behind while Europe had not much to show after a decade of spending EU money lavishly on IPv6 related projects. India released a National IPv6 Deployment Roadmap, outlining the steps to be taken for the implementation of IPv6 as well as the formation of the India IPv6 Task force. China and Japan were thought to ...

IPv6 : The summer it finally happened A decade old guessing game finally came to an end in mid-2012. America was supposed to be hopelessly behind while Europe had not much to show after a decade of spending EU money lavishly on IPv6 related projects. India released a National IPv6 Deployment Roadmap, outlining the steps to be taken for the implementation of IPv6 as well as the formation of the India IPv6 Task force. China and Japan were thought to ...