Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Network operators are under increasing pressure to delight their subscribers with media-rich and reliable experiences. Faced with that challenge, operators must innovate and capitalize on high-demand subscriber services such as mobile video calling and browser-based real-time communication (WebRTC) if they hope to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded marketplace. The good news is that providers can implement these advanced services by turning up the volume on the infrastructure they already have – provided they leverage the following target areas to expand their capabilities.
–Any-to-any networking: In order to enable media-rich communications, including video, voice, data and whatever’s next, operators should evaluate technologies with an eye for facilitating a seamless flow between service providers, application developers and customers across multiple devices and platforms – all while ensuring the lowest operating costs.
–Network congestion: Just six years after the debut of Apple’s iPhone, the number of active smartphones worldwide hit the one billion mark at the end of 2012. Yet, studies show that three-quarters of wireless service subscribers aren’t getting the data speeds they want or expect during peak times in busy locations due to mobile network congestion. Operators should pursue opportunities that allow them to re-energize networks by managing bandwidth and amplifying capacity gains at a fraction of the cost of new network capacity.
–Application enablement: Operators are in heated co-opetition with over-the-top application developers to offer alternatives to media-rich services such as conferencing, SMS, video calling and location-based services. The most innovative are reaping the rewards of transitioning to virtualized or cloud-based architectures and deploying scalable platforms or services. Enhancing the network’s overall performance allows operators to create and launch core and value-added services much more efficiently and profitably.
–Unified communications: The rise of global markets means that workers are spread across diverse offices and remote locations such as homes, coffee shops or hotels. According to a recent survey conducted by BroadSoft, however, these remote and mobile workers are increasingly frustrated by the limitations of passive, non-real-time tools such as e-mail and voicemail. Today’s UC providers can use the same network to deliver a far richer set of collaboration and productivity tools, including virtual PBX to laptops, tablets and smartphones.
–Contact center transformation: As contact centers transition from TDM to IP, from premise-based to cloud/hosted, or from fragmented to centralized to decentralized, there are emerging technologies available today that enable operators to integrate multi-modal services in a secure and optimized fashion. Contact centers empowered by these technologies perform better and run more cost-effectively.
Mobile and UC end-users won’t wait for the next wave of technology so that operators can finally address these five areas; they’re demanding solutions now. Service providers should align with vendor partners that recognize the need for supercharging network performance. Some of these visionary companies have already developed the tools to harness the potential of the network, make it more efficient and elevate it to the next level. Service providers that make revitalization of their networks a priority will see immediate gains by sidestepping costly capital investments in new infrastructure. These providers will also retain an edge over competitors who are slow to act and have the power to boost quality of experience – a key differentiator in customer retention.
Kevin Cook is Dialogic’s president and CEO. Cook has been with Dialogic since 2008 and has served in various executive management positions, including president and COO, where he directed global operations for more than 700 employees in 30 countries. Before Dialogic, Cook served as VP of North America at Avaya, where he directed a 1,700-person organization that spanned sales, services and field marketing functions. Prior to that, he held senior level sales and operating positions at Lucent Technologies and AT&T. Cook has degrees in Business Administration and Communications from the University of Wisconsin and is a member of various professional organizations.
