Looking back on 2010, at Redknee we saw increasing importance of mobile connectivity and demand for convergence- we welcome this as a great catalyst for our business in 2011 and beyond. We saw mobile penetration exceed 100% in an ever-growing list of countries. 2010 saw 5 billion apps downloaded, 347 percent increase in Twitter users, 200 million mobile Facebook users and 100 million YouTube videos played on mobile devices every day, according to MobileFuture.org.

The number of subscribers has increased. The number of devices and services available to subscribers have increased. The subscribers’ expectations and demands for real-time customer service have increased. And the future looks to hold more of the same.

Our industry enters a new year where the issues that made headlines a few months ago have already become part of the normal state of affairs. As operators move in various ways to address issues like bill shock, net neutrality, the viability of flat-rate plans, rural vs. urban penetration rates, and what type of “pipe”, if any, they want to be known as, they keep one aspect of their business first in their minds: how to build long-lasting relationships of trust with their subscribers and partners.

As the revenue crunch continues to bite in spite of growing data traffic, service providers must determine their data strategy in order to grow revenues and manage their bandwidth.

Today’s banquet of mobile broadband capabilities offered to customers is not only challenging service providers’ bandwidth management, it is also putting increasing pressure on CSPs on how they can monetize these services. The days of light users compensating for heavy users in the flat-rate model are gone and now operators are in a race against time to overturn this premise as projections show mobile data to increase five-fold in as little as a year’s time.

The telecom market, like any other industry, has experienced the ups and downs of economic change over the past decade. This change has created a more competitive market for communications service providers (CSPs), and a savvier consumer - one who is willing to shop for the best value and price plans available. In turn, service providers are working hard to lure potential subscribers from their competitors. In this environment, the ability to properly price and launch new services and promotions quickly becomes much more important.

Rather than being a burden, this presents a significant opportunity for service providers to capitalize on the overabundance of new services, applications and content developed through various channels. However they must first be willing to change their concept of how services are launched, sold and marketed - they need to be willing to look at new business models and determine what makes the most sense in this dynamic and quickly changing environment.

Mobile World Congress 2011 is the largest gathering for our industry, attracting more than 50,000 people converging on Barcelona during 14-17 February 2011. Redknee has a host of activities planned for the event, which is shaping up to be the busiest event for us to date.

Redefine What's Possible
New Revenue. New Services.
New Subscribers.

Redknee has a host of activities planned for this year's Mobile World Congress. Book a meeting or come by the Redknee booth located at stand 1E37 in Hall 1 to learn more.

Mobile World Congress - Barcelona; February 14-17, 2011