LONDON-Mobile operators should revise their pricing models for advanced mobile messaging services including multimedia messaging services, wireless e-mail and wireless instant messaging, analyst firm Ovum warns in a new research report.
According to Ovum’s forecasts, the number of mobile text messages sent per year worldwide will grow to more than 2 trillion by the end of 2008, but meanwhile, global revenues will slow from 2005, decreasing, for example, in Western Europe from $14.3 billion in 2006 to $12.8 billion in 2008. “More messages, but fewer dollars-this is the nightmare scenario for mobile operators,” said John Delaney of Ovum.
Ovum recommends carriers implement an event-based charging model where carriers charge per message rather than by the size of message. “Adopting the event-based pricing model may well make it more difficult to encourage early usage of wireless IM services, but it will also ensure that those services do not dry up the vital stream of revenue provided by SMS too soon,” added Delaney.
