Best in class is best for content delivery says Vimplecom
Rating: Offering free content first to avoid support headaches
A brave admission from Aleksey Lobanov of Vimplecom as to why a major upgrade to the company’s wap portal was delayed by up to seven months. Essentially although the company would have preferred to source the whole system from one vendor, that’s proved to be just not feasible.
So this major operator - which covers Russia and several of the former Soviet Republics - has taken a ‘best in class’ approach and integrated products from no fewer than five different vendors.
The specific vendor about whom Lobanov chatted to me today was Mobixell. In his opinion Mobixell offers the best there is in real-time transcoding. What the software does is solve Vimplecom’s problem of creating a huge database of different handsets and holding a different profile on each one of them.
Lobanov pointed out that profiling handsets correctly was a particular problem for Vimplecom because of its geographical location. Handsets are being introduced onto the network which originate from both Europe and Asia. He gave as a specific example the Nokia 6600 which radically changes its profile depending on which software updates or ‘patches’ have been installed. Handing this problem over to Mobixell solves the company’s headache.
Once you can be confident that content will be delivered in the correct format – and Lobanov obviously has great faith in Mobixell’s product, then it is then feasible to make a big marketing push over content delivery. In turn this should increase both data traffic and customer satisfaction.
To be on the safe side, Vimplecom intends to start offering an improved portal next week – Tuesday 27th with a range of free content. [The URL is http://wap.beeline.ru] The system will be able to handle all formats – audio; visual; and graphical (still pictures). Obviously java based games won’t be transcoded. The reason for sticking initially to free content is that it will put less of a strain on the company’s helpdesk. This will provide breathing space for support staff to get up to speed with the new technology.
Another useful spin-off from having highly reliable delivery of content is increased competition. Transcoding means that content can be sourced from a wider variety of providers, thus increasing numbers and competition between suppliers.
What Vimplecom is proving is that it is possible to confront the legacy that wap has bequeathed to operators and get on with the business of delivering content. Even if the systems that need to be put in place are very complicated.
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