by Robert Fleming, Regional Sales Manager, Jinny Software

The telecoms industry is continuing to evolve rapidly. Infrastructure suppliers are merging, new MVNOs are being set up, and the services and technologies included within the scope of offerings from mobile operators, fixed-line operators, broadband and TV providers are increasingly overlapping. Mobile and fixed-line technologies are increasingly dependent on Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure and broadband and digital TV technologies are using high-speed IP networks to deliver their services. The current environment is now one where historically disparate technologies and suppliers are all evolving services based on IP technology and competing with each other to win ‘broader’ service contracts from the same fixed pool of subscribers. Convergence is the adopted terminology that describes this merge and progression of technologies towards an ‘all-IP’ environment.

What is Converged Personalised Messaging?

Messaging, in the main, includes text, multimedia, voice, video and instant messaging. All of these technologies sit within the wider IT and telecommunications environments and are similarly evolving towards an ‘all- IP’ technology environment. Converged Messaging includes the:

• Interaction between next-generation, all-IP messaging technologies and the legacy technologies and services that exist today;
• Progression away from disparate messaging technologies towards an environment where different messaging technologies seamlessly inter-operate for all subscribers;
• Ability to support operators as they evolve networks from today’s 2 and 3G architectures towards IP, IMS and other future infrastructures;
• Personalisation allows subscribers to control how they interact with the network, how and when they send or receive messages, how they tailor their price plan, protect their children or staff from unsolicited content and how they communicate to callers at all times – when they are busy or free.
• Messaging applications that simultaneously support multiple technologies provide the greatest return on investment and allow operators to minimise risk and financial exposure as new technologies and services are rolled out.

Convergence, billing and subscriber requirements

To fully exploit the opportunities that exist in the converged network, we need to examine the current environment. All operators will see increased competition from new service providers in both the home and international markets, which are evolving from Internet, TV and fixed-line industries to offer services that compete heavily with traditional mobile business.

A key weapon for the operator facing this increased competition is to build on its current billing relationship with its subscribers. Many of the new entrants will not have a billing relationship with their target customers so this immediately provides an advantage to the incumbent mobile operator or operators. This advantage can be built on by allowing new competitors and services to be handled as off-net services rather than suppressing access altogether. They can increase revenues from potential off-net service provider traffic and also more actively protect their subscriber base from being targeted by these competitors. This billing relationship with the subscriber is the mobile operators’ biggest single current advantage.

If subscribers are generally familiar with Internet usage, they will be familiar with service configuration and personalisation options. Mobile operators need to understand this requirement and ensure that subscribers are able to manage their services and network settings in the converged environment. As technologies progress towards an all-IP environment, the ability to use subscriber data and subscriber preferences and settings to control each individual’s interaction with the network will become very valuable.

As more new services are deployed, there will be a need for subscribers to be able to select their preferred format for each required service. This is especially important within the messaging environment. SMS soccer results on a Saturday afternoon, for example, will no longer be enough. Results can now be delivered as SMS, MMS or video clip and subscribers will want to be able to select how, what and when they receive messages. Regardless of how quickly new services are adopted or what the next killer application will be, the ability for each subscriber to be able to interact with the network services on offer is critical.

Overcoming subscriber knowledge limitations

Most subscribers will never know the difference between 2G, 3G or IMS networks, and operators must avoid creating a world of confusion as more and more technology-specific services become available. New services must, therefore, not be associated with a specific technology unless absolutely necessary and the link is clear. Using the camera phone concept to advertise MMS was reasonably successful because the digital camera concept was already familiar and accepted by the vast majority of people. In the IMS world, however, push-to-talk, VoIP, video/media services and other IP offerings are not so easy to promote, although these technologies can be introduced as additional options for existing services. For example, subscribers can choose whether they get service alerts via video clips, MMS or SMS. If they have a 2G device, only the SMS option would be available, but there would be more options with 3G devices. Instead of paying a separate charge for SMS-based wallpaper and polyphonic ringtones, subscribers could choose a package where the operator suggests the range of services available, with the optimum choice for each service. An overall recommended package would be offered at a set price, allowing for a price reduction if certain items were not required, for example, if the subscriber was not interested in video clips.

Interoperation and operator benefits

With any new technology, it takes time to grow in stature and take-up, and it is unrealistic to believe that it will ever fully replace its predecessor. Mobile operators are, therefore, faced with the challenge to enable new IP-based technologies to interoperate with legacy services. SMS, by far the most widely used messaging technology in the mobile communications environment, must be able to seamlessly communicate in the future, predominantly IMS messaging (IM) based environment. Providing a messaging capability that allows legacy and future messaging technologies to interoperate is critical to support future messaging services growth.

For operators, the benefits of converged messaging are two-fold: Firstly, the ability to be able to provide services that subscribers can personalise will lead to greater revenues. By allowing off-net services access whilst retaining the subscriber’s billing relationship, operators will be able to access new revenue possibilities in terms of authentication and the provision of subscriber profile data to third parties. Secondly, the ability to offer simple messaging services, as well as more complicated streaming or multiple-session services over the IP network will provide savings in terms of equipment optimisation and operational cost efficiencies.

Interoperation, personalisation and subscriber benefits

For subscribers, the ability to be able to communicate based on a limited knowledge of technology, but within the context of personalisation options, is a huge step forward. Subscribers who are empowered to control their services, whilst allowing the network to suggest the preferred technology for each service, will drive usage significantly. Subscribers want to select services without having to be technology gurus. In the voice and SMS world, services were easier to promote because incremental subscriber education, related to new service usage, was minimal. When MMS, IM, push-to-talk, presence and Global Positioning System services are added, service success is only possible if usage is intuitive. Subscribers expect that new services be presented in a manner that builds on their existing knowledge. Anything that the operator can do to simplify access, such as using similar configuration menus, prompt and auto set-up using over-the-air configuration or similar device settings, will ultimately drive success and can only be of benefit to all.

Convergent means interoperability

Strategies that link new technologies to existing technologies, such as service evolution rather than replacement, will be the most successful in a future converged messaging environment. These strategies will build on current technology to facilitate new services. IMS, IP messaging and other new services will eventually replace every messaging predecessor that exists today. These technologies will enhance and add to the service possibilities available to subscribers. New and old technology interoperation, combined with the ability for subscribers to select their own preferred service usage formats, will provide them with a technical and commercial flexibility they will demand from their future mobile environment. This eventual harmony will lead, in turn, to increased service usage and greater operator revenues.