Exploring Cellular Operators: Services, Applications and Infrastructure Guide

Nov. 23, 2009 - PRLog -- Report Summary

For those looking for revenue where there is big money, working with cellular operators is an excellent choice. A typical cellular operator is serving millions of customers and each one of them spends millions of USD/Euro per month on voice, data and value-added content and applications.

Due to the tough competition and decrease in voice - initiated revenues, operators are in a permanent search for new innovations and services to make the differentiation and increase non-voice revenues. This is the big opportunity for companies aiming to make win-win situations and to supply the operator with such a new revenue source. While there is huge potential, working with cellular operators is a quite complicated process. This publication is a guide to helping companies in the process, from initial stages until a successful commercial launch.

Key Findings

Best ways for initiating contact with operators
Knowing your partner - cellular operator organization structure
Which way best fits your system: In-network installation or Hosted?
Business models used by operators, and which best fits your system / application
Cellular operators groups, and how to make smart decision choosing your next partner
Typical project milestones - commercial, technical, marketing and administration issues
Detailed list and explanation of the documentation you'll be have to prepare, from RFx's
Issues to consider when offering web-based service: technical and marketing considerations
Service life cycle management fully detailed. Campaigns, registration, user interface and experience, charging methods
Detailed list of potential revenue sources of interest to cellular operators and in which there are also cooperation opportunities
Detailed list and explanation of the integration with provisioning, messaging, DWH, monitoring, maintenance and much more systems.
Issues to consider when offering handset-based service: handset capabilities, operation systems and mobile platforms, application signature process, application download process

Target Audience

Entrepreneurs and start-up's
Cellular operators
Venture Capitalists
Consultants and analysts
Service / System / Application providers

Report Outline

Introduction. 7
Key Findings 8
Target Audience 9
Cooperation Opportunities 10

Voice Oriented 10
Information 10
Fun Tone 10
Ring Tone 10
IVR 10
Voice Mail10
Signaling / IN Based 10
SMS 11
MMS 11
Location Based Services - LBS 11
Mobile Instant Messaging - MIM.. 12

Advertising 12
Content Providing 12
Content Delivery 12
Content Optimization 12
Content Streaming 13
Cellular Browsing 13
Email 13
Users' Personal Contents Backup and Restore 13
FMC and IMS 13
Quality Assurance 14
End to End User Experience 14
Fraud Detection 14
Revenue Loss (Billing Holes, Service Downtime ...)14
Cellular Operators Worldwide in a Nutshell 15

Groups 15
Tier-x (1,2,3 ...) and What Does it Means 15
Underlying Technologies 16
Subscriber Statistics End Q1 2007 16
Typical Cellular Operator Organization Structure 17
Introduction 17

Marketing Division 17
Product17
Marketing 17
Handsets 18
Segments Handling 18
Sales 18
Technologies Division 18
Core Network 18
Radio 18
Signaling 19
Data 19
Data Networking 19
QA. 19
IT 19
Provisioning 19
Billing 20
CSR Tools 20
DWH. 20
Alarm & Monitoring Tools 20
Storage & DB's 20
VAS 21
Next Generation (3G, 4G etc)21
Operations 21
Monitoring and Control21
Maintenance 22
Customer Support / Customer Care 22
Legal Department 22
Procurement Department 22
Administration (HR etc) Departments 22
Initiating Contact with Cellular Operators 23
Approaching the Marketing Department 23
Approaching the Technological Department 23
The Hybrid Option 24

Business Models 25
Licensing 25
Revenue Share 25
Fixed Price 26
Typical Project Milestones 27
Business and Commercial Issues 27
RFx's 27
Proposal27
SoW (Statement of Work)27
P.O (Purchase Order)28
Technical Issues 28
PDR (Preliminary Design Review)28
Detailed Design 28
CDR (Critical Design Review)30
Development30
Installation - Lab System. 30
Integrations - Lab system. 30
Internal QA (Quality Assurance) - Lab System. 30
Customer QA - Lab System. 31
Repeating the Process with the Commercial System. 31

Administrative issues 31
Documentation 31
Training 31
ATP 31
Pilot31
Legal and Procurement Issues 32
How long does it Takes? 32
Illustrative Gantt of the entire process 33
Typical Project Documents 34
RFx's 34
MoU. 34
SoW.. 34
Proposal 35
Contract 35
Purchase Order (P.O.)35
Time Table / Schedule 36
Detailed Design 36
User Manual 37
Maintenance 37
Project Meetings / (Minutes of Meetings - MoM)37
QA and Acceptance Documents 37
Common in-network integrations expected for typical project 39
Provisioning Systems 39
Billing Systems 39
DWH Systems 39

Messaging Systems 40
Short Message Service Center (SMSC)40
Multimedia Message Service Center (MMSC)40
Monitoring and Maintenance Systems 41
Customer Support Systems 41
Next Generation Networking(NGN)42
Intelligent Network (IN) Systems 42
IMS Systems 42
Content Management and Download Systems 42
Operators' Proprietary Systems 43
Applications / Services Installation Modes 44
Hosted 44
In-Network 44
Pros and Cons 45
Service Life Cycle 46

Informing the Customers About Service 46
TV, Radio and newspapers campaigns 46
SMS campaign 46
Customer support46
Service centers 46
Operator's website 46
Adding Users to Service 46
Voice Initiated Process 47
WAP Initiated Process 47
Web Initiated Process 47
SMS Initiated Process 47

Using Service - User Experience 47
By Website 47
By Users' Handset47
By CSR 48
Charging 48
Issues to Consider48
Prepaid 48
Postpaid 48
Billing Cycles 48
Promotions 49
Note about Corporate Users 49
Special Rates and Tariffs 49
Monthly Fee 49
Pay per Use 49

Issues to consider when offering Web-based Service 50
Technical Oriented Issues 50
Technology Used for Building the Website 50
Performance Issues 50
Data Security Issues 50
Supported Browsers 51
Marketing Oriented Issues 51
Supported Browsers 51
Maintaining Operator's Website Guidelines 52
Look and Feel52
Accessibility 52
Login 52
Terms and Conditions 52
Registration and De-registration 52

Issues to consider when Offering Handset-based Service 53
Handset Capabilities 53
Screen: Size, Resolution, Colors, Touch? 53
CPU Power & Memory 53
Power / Battery Life 53
SIM Card 53
Surfing Speed 53
WAP Support & Version 53
Technology (GSM, 3G, CDMA, iDen ...)54
Built-in Applications 54
Interfaces 54
MP3 / MP4 Player54
GPS / A-GPS Support54
Camera Capabilities 54
Speaker(s)54
User Interface 54

Operation Systems / Mobile Platforms 54
Java 2 Micro Edition - J2ME 54
Symbian 55
Windows Mobile 55
Palm OS 55
Brew (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless)55
Google Android 55
Application Signature 55
The Need 55
The Signing Process 55
Application Download 55

About the author 57

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