Ploughing the Digital Fields: Mobile Operators' Strategies for Digital Services

Online, November 28, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are making forays into the digital services segment, rolling out their own film stores, chat and message applications, mobile wallets and mobile advertising platforms. Smaller players are offering digital search services, access to selected ring tunes and comedy video clips, mobile money facility, mobile vouchers and mobile booking and reservation services. The suite of digital services that MNOs may invest and roll out for their subscribers are so extensive that most MNOs are forced to evaluate the various factors that will determine whether their digital services strategy fits into their long term business proposition, complements their existing business model, matches their market, recognizes their current strengths and weaknesses and is well integrated with their current suite of services.

PCC Mobile Broadband (PCCMB), a digital publications, analytics and consulting company in the mobile broadband segment, with particular emphasis in the OSS/BSS domain and the policy and charging control vertical, has released a Strategy Paper entitled 'Ploughing the Digital Fields: Mobile Operators' Strategies for Digital Services' discussing the broad strategy for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) looking into making bigger inroads into the digital services segment. The strategy paper discusses the three major categories within the digital services, namely the Content, Communications and Commerce, highlighting the suite of services that fall under each category, the competitive landscape, the opportunities, the challenges and other factors that determine the MNOs' game plan for digital services.

''It is imperative that MNOs carve out clear strategies for their digital service businesses, outlining the core services that they should target in the near term, upon which complementary services can be built on in the longer term, creating the MNO's own unique digital services ecosystem. Both demand and technological factors will continue to influence these decisions. The endless flow of new content and applications in the market are creating huge shifts in the subscribers' appetite for digital services while on the technology front, intensified research and developmental initiatives are creating more scalable and flexible solutions that can now cater for a wider range of service roll-outs. These and a host of other influencing factors will determine not only MNO's choice of digital services, but also the operational and partnership models, bundling and pricing strategies, choice of back-end solutions and more interestingly tie-ups with other MNOs on certain services such as the mobile payments and content libraries." says Prushothma Rao, the article's author and Head of Consulting, PCC Mobile Broadband.

The Strategy Paper is available at http://www.policychargingcontrol.com/white-papers/strategy-article-ploughing-the-digital-fields-mobile-operators-strategies-for-digital-services