April 29, 2007
Mobile Messaging, the next generation
By Jay Seaton
Chief Marketing Officer
Airwide Solutions
Next-generation mobile messaging networks are evolving much as the Internet has already transformed into Web 2.0.
The Internet became a shared user community when faster throughput and broader hardware and software interoperability empowered users so they weren’t just recipients of sometimes static information housed on a Web site. Personal blogs, wikis and podcasts have spawned a new generation of Internet voices accessible to audiences of millions.
This dynamic is similar to mobile messaging’s current transformation. More powerful, protocol agnostic networks with more reliable and advanced hardware and software is creating new revenue opportunities for operators. They can offer new services that give subscribers more control over messaging options.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Operators need not rip and replace their existing infrastructure investments to evolve their networks to be Mobile Messaging 2.0-ready. Rather, they should reconfigure how their infrastructures are deployed. First, they should break their infrastructures into separately scalable components that support multiple messaging types (SMS, multimedia messaging service (MMS), mobile instant messaging (MIM) etc). Then, they should independently deploy revenue-generating services and applications across those components. This type of architecture streamlines infrastructure management, accelerates new service deployment, and reduces capital and operating expense associated with scaling the infrastructure to meet growth.
What is <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Messaging 2.0?
Mobile Messaging 2.0 is a blueprint for mobile operators to design their infrastructures going forward, giving subscribers more control over their messaging experience while cutting costs and growing revenue. Mobile Messaging 2.0 lets subscribers decide how to manage their own messaging experience. It’s the difference between network-controlled messaging (as defined by the network’s limitations) and user-controlled messaging (powered by technology that enables the user to dictate messaging options).
With Mobile Messaging 2.0 users can now configure mobile presence and availability. For example, find me, follow me features allow users to automatically forward certain calls from a desk or home phone to a cell phone. Subscribers can also receive voice mails as text messages and set special ring tones for contacts. They can send messages to groups, archive important messages, filter out unwanted messages before they reach the handset and create customized auto-reply messages.
The blueprint
Though the revolution is under way, the industry as a whole has much to do to make Mobile Messaging 2.0 and its advanced user capabilities pervasive. Current infrastructures are built in silos – SMS, MMS, IM, e-mail, voice mail etc. – because conflicting standards and interfaces prevented operators from integrating them. So carriers had to deploy and operate each separately, which hampered overall network management. This raised costs because operators had to over-buy capacity to accommodate peak traffic, rather than average traffic, for each service. Scalability became more of a cost than a profit.
With Mobile Messaging 2.0, operators create an underlying messaging infrastructure that is cheaper to manage and more flexible for service and feature deployment. This infrastructure will have four tiers:
· access and delivery – integrates messaging components to the core network via standard interfaces;
· control – provides network and business logic to route messages to subscribers and/or applications;
· storage – stores traffic that isn’t delivered on first attempt; and
· application – executes the logic for application-to-person (A2P) or person-to- applications solutions (P2A).
This tiered architecture allows operators to increase storage across the infrastructure to support SMS, MMS, etc. without incurring the costs of over-buying capacity for any one service. Operators providing text, picture and instant messaging can use this type of architecture to create a common notification and delivery system spanning each service, as well as common interfaces and message stores. New services and features could easily plug into the common infrastructure, helping to drive revenue while having a minimal effect on operational costs. This approach gives operators a unified view of previously siloed networks, but also provides the ability to add capacity only where needed.
Not only do operators reduce costs with Mobile Messaging 2.0 infrastructures, they also increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and reduce churn by delivering the latest messaging capabilities to their customers. They also future-proof their networks by establishing the foundation for added capacity and fast deployment of new technologies.
Mobile Messaging 2.0 signifies an infrastructure evolution from one that is limited by network capabilities to one that enables users to define the manner in which they are contacted. It is this user empowerment that will determine Mobile Messaging 2.0’s success, just as it has with Web 2.0.
