Rating: Promises a way to stem the loss of SMS revenues
As we all know, the GSMA has created an initiative with Rich Communications Suite (RCS) which is attempting to thwart the demise of SMS revenues. RCS has been designed to deliver an experience beyond voice and SMS and reduce revenue losses by providing consumers with services already offered by OTT (over-the-top) players. Examples of OTT services are instant messaging (IM) or chat; live video sharing; and file transfer across any device. RCS is being billed as a technology to strengthen relationships with customers and harness further revenue opportunities from advanced personal communications. Movius‘ svp for products and technology, Amit Modi, claims that RCS is a step in the right direction but is too focused on the network and needs to be more about the user.The company claims it will launch a solution to help operators enter the advanced personal communications messaging market and take back control of the data pipe later in 2012.
Modi believes that the key to operators regaining control lies in seamlessly connecting the IP-based advanced personal communications already offered by successful existing OTT networks.
“Billions of dollars of SMS revenue is being lost each year to OTT messaging services because of smart phones,” said Modi. “Operators must act now to combat this loss of control.”
He continued, “Right now carriers are working to make the data pipe bigger, and in doing so, helping OTT providers, but with relatively limited benefit to their own bottom line.
It is our vision that the operator acts as a central point connecting all social networks together and take back the control.”
According to Amit Modi, “The key is in allowing someone on Google Talk to video conference with their friend on Facebook, send a file to someone on MSN Messenger, or instant message to Skype.
If the operator is providing a single simple user interface enabling this connection at the hands of the consumer then the potential is huge. It’s a win-win for the customer and the operator.”
Movius intends to offer an integrated open solution that enables customers to connect to any network via a single portal.
The company argues that OTT solutions already offer all of the applications of RCS but without network limitations.
GoMobile News agrees that operators need to combat the power of OTT services but isn’t sure that building a portal is necessarily the right option.
So the idea is to be an aggregator of OTT services. Kind of OTTofOTT?
RCS and RCSe in particular is a good service from a user perspective – if-when- interoperability and clients are available for all major platforms (iOS, Android, Windows). Without that it’s a silo again and won’t attract users.
The other question the operators would have to figure out is charging.