Mobile Marketing

The Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation: It's Not All About Data- Mobile Voice and Messaging Share Plans Offer Plenty of Appeal

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 14, 2014

Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe continues the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series by examining the degree to which consumers are interested in share plans that include unlimited voice and messaging but don’t include data.

The last Six Degrees blog explored consumer attitudes toward two different mobile share plan options: sharing data only and sharing voice, messaging and data. This blog will explore attitudes toward a 3^rd option: sharing unlimited voice and messaging — but not data — across multiple devices or subscribers.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

10 Ways to drive mobile data growth through the youth market

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 10, 2014

By Daisy Su, Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, Corporate Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent (@daisysu)

Last week, I talked about mobile operators are building an overall brand experience that engages young consumers because the youth segment is valuable — and do influence adult segments. In addition to creating a youth brand or a youthful brand, mobile operators must also consider how to craft specific offers that promote the “mobile data first” experience to drive mobile data growth through the youth market.

Here are the 10 ideas that can help craft the “mobile data first” offers using an online charging solution (OCS).

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Business Talk, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

Build a Brand Experience that Engages Young Consumers

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 2, 2014

By Daisy Su, Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, Corporate Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent (@daisysu)

I’ve received a lot of questions from mobile operators, who are asking about mobile data growth and how it’s related to the youth market — meaning consumers from the age of 18 to 25 or sometimes 18 to 22. The mobile operators’ own research shows that the youth segment is valuable — and influences adult segments. The Business Case for Youth section of the Mobile Youth Report also says: “The youth market is worth $1 trillion dollars. Youth drive high-end smartphone markets. Youth have the highest lifetime value of all customers.” As a result, mobile operators around the world are taking notice of young consumers, and some are investing in a new youth brand to attract that segment.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Marketing, Mobile advertising, Next-Generation Communications, Video, Wi-Fi, Wireless

Shared Data Plans: A Tool for Attracting and Retaining Subscribers

Edited By Peter Bernstein on May 22, 2014

Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe opens a new chapter of the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series by examining consumer interest in shared data plans.

Shared data plans have become popular with mobile operators. Today, 19 of the world’s 25 largest mobile operators by subscriber base size[1] offer data-sharing options. Many others are following suit and offering subscribers the ability to connect several users or devices to the same pool of mobile data.

For operators, the addition of shared data plans is about clearing new paths to market expansion, subscriber stickiness and bottom-line growth. But what do mobile consumers think of shared data? What factors make them more or less likely to embrace it? And what impact does it have on whether they stick with a mobile operator?

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, BYOD, Business Talk, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

The Secret Value of VoLTE

Edited By Peter Bernstein on April 10, 2014

By Ed Elkin, Director, IP Platforms Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

At Mobile World Congress, I discovered that many network providers still aren’t aware of the broader business values of voice over LTE (VoLTE). Most knew it readily includes HD voice for clearer calls and reduced background noise, which lets you feel like you’re standing right next to the other person. Most didn’t realize that, in unexpected ways, VoLTE helps them earn more money and increase efficiency.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC, Wireless

Shared Data Plans Mean New Charging Challenges

Edited By Peter Bernstein on October 14, 2013

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

The move to LTE networks, increasing data usage, and the proliferation of multiple devices per user has ushered in the concept of shared data plans.

Shared data plans offer benefits both to consumers and operators. For carriers, shared data plans mean the ability to have a single pool of data minutes that they can use across their multiple devices. For carriers, shared data plans mean increased customer loyalty and additional revenue opportunities.

However, shared data plans also mean challenges for carrier charging systems.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Broadband, Customer Care, Customer Experience, LTE, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

Carriers Can Benefit from Shared Mobile Data Plans

Edited By Peter Bernstein on September 10, 2013

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

Shared minutes have been a wild success for mobile operators, and the family plans have become the norm. But now consumers want shared data plans, too, since according to Alcatel-Lucent one in every four mobile users will have more than one device by 2016. Currently 60 percent of consumers want shared data plans, and that number is likely to grow.

Shared data plans are a boon for operators, so this trend should be embraced.

Users on shared plans typically opt for larger data buckets, for one. More than a quarter of subscribers for one leading carrier choose a data allowance of 10 GB per month or larger, according to a recent TechZine posting by Daisy Su Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, Corporate Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent, The Case for Shared Data Plans.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Business Talk, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

COMING SOON TO A MOBILE OPERATOR NEAR YOU: THE SIX DEGREES OF MOBILE DATA PLAN INNOVATION

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 21, 2013

With the final entry in the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s
Rich Crowe (@rhcrowe) looks at how mobile operators can use (and are already using) the six degrees of mobile data plan innovation to capture and deliver more value.

The Value of a Gigabyte

What does a gigabyte mean to you? Is it just a unit of data or something concrete, like a movie or 250 songs? Maybe it’s a means to share news and pictures and stay connected. These are things with value. If you’ve got a mobile device, a gigabyte offers the freedom to take your movies, songs or connections with you anywhere you go. A mobile gigabyte can even deliver peace of mind by supporting applications that tell you where you are and how to get where you’re going at any given moment. This flexibility is also valuable.

Are some gigabytes worth more than others? Are gigabytes delivered in a fast and uninterrupted stream worth more than those that come slower with pauses and buffering? What about gigabytes that can be shared with others?

Yes, gigabytes have value. How much value depends on their quality and the way each individual uses them. It takes innovation to deliver and capture that value!

Every mobile network operator wants to get more value from mobile data. But today’s unlimited and basic tiered data plans ignore the value that mobile data offers to subscribers. By offering a set amount of data for a set price, operators make mobile data a commodity and encourage consumers to shop for the lowest price per gigabyte. To capture the true value of mobile data, operators need to change the way they think about – and define business models for – mobile data services.

For mobile operators, success– both in terms of customer satisfaction and profitability – means recognizing that mobile data delivers tangible value to customers. Just as important, it means understanding that individual customers value mobile data based on their own interests and the way they use their services. Traditional mobile data plans can’t deliver success on these terms. Operators need new and compelling plans that can reinforce the value of mobile data and better meet the unique needs of each customer.

The Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series introduced six different ways for mobile operators to build highly personalized pricing options and showcase the value of mobile data. These innovations will help operators offer differentiated service levels and present more value-based options to subscribers and businesses. The six innovations are:

Service level-based plans: Offer premium services that deliver a higher speed or QoS.
Shared data plans: Let several users or devices connect to and share a common pool of mobile data.
Application-based plans: For a monthly fee, allow users to consume data with selected applications without having the usage count against their monthly data plans.
Third party pays plans: Offer toll-free access to specific content, with the content provider or another business paying for the data subscribers use to consume the content.
Loyalty-based plans: Reward loyal customers with mobile data and partner with retailers to include mobile data in their loyalty plans.
Capacity-based plans: Shift traffic to off peak, create services to consume off-peak capacity, and monetize peak data traffic.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Business Talk, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation: Capacity-Based Plans

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 9, 2013

In this seventh installment of the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe (@rhcrowe) looks at capacity-based mobile data plans. With capacity-based plans, subscribers are encouraged to use the network when it has spare capacity or to pay a little bit more as the network nears its capacity. Mobile operators can use these plans to reduce network congestion, monetize peak-time data traffic, and better manage the investment required to address continually growing demand for data.

Congested networks and wasted capacity

Fast-rising mobile data traffic – driven by increasing consumption of real-time entertainment on the go – is putting a strain on mobile networks (see Figure 1 as an example). Mobile network operators are working hard to increase capacity so they can meet peak demand and keep subscribers satisfied. Adding capacity can help ensure that users don’t encounter a slow or unresponsive network during mobile data traffic peaks. But it’s an expensive solution that means even more capacity goes unused at off-peak times. Capacity-based plans are an excellent way to slow network growth requirements while monetizing available capacity.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Business Talk, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

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Congested networks and wasted capacity