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

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

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 2, 2013

In this sixth installment of the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe (@rhcrowe) examines loyalty-based mobile data plans. With loyalty-based plans, subscribers get rewards for keeping up active relationships with mobile network operators. Operators can use these plans as the basis for retaining subscribers, encouraging increased spending and data usage, or forming mutually profitable partnerships with retailers.

RAISE the bar

Airlines offer them. So do hotels, credit card companies and, yes, mobile network operators. “They” are loyalty programs that reward customers for making frequent purchases. Airlines, hotels and credit cards tend to stick to the script, offering free flights, nights and merchandise. Mobile network operators have no such script. Today, operators reward loyal customers with voice minutes, text messages, accessories, ringtones, discounted device upgrades or even dining, shopping, travel and spa services. As mobile network operators’ business models grow more data-centric, the creative use of mobile data will become essential to ensuring that their loyalty-based plans remain relevant.

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

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

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 22, 2013

In this fourth installment of the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe examines application-based data plans. These plans let mobile subscribers use specific applications without consuming their data allowance.

Removing the worry from mobile application use

How would you like to use your favorite mobile applications without having to worry about going over your data limit and paying overage fees? That’s the idea behind application-based data plans. You pay a monthly fee to use one or more specific applications as much as you want. The data consumed by these applications doesn’t count against your data plan. In some cases, your mobile network operator may decide to make selected applications available without impacting your data plan in exchange for a very nominal fee.

Two categories of applications are particularly well suited to application-based pricing. The first are data-hungry applications, like video and multimedia. Today, some consumers use these applications sparingly because they fear going over data limits and incurring overage charges. The second includes core applications that don’t consume much data, such as text-only e-mail or social networking. These applications may be used to introduce subscribers to the world of mobile data.

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

Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation: Shared Data Plans

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 12, 2013

Mobile data: It’s nice to share

From an early age, we’re taught that it’s nice to share. With time, we learn the value of sharing things like cookies, good books and the wisdom that comes from experience. But what about sharing mobile data? Do consumers want to share their mobile data? What would this look like?

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

Keeping Up With the Modern-Day Nomads

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 10, 2013

By Philip Carden, Head of Alcatel-Lucent Consulting Services

Meet the digital nomads, a growing group of heavy mobile data users that's redefining how service providers think about connectivity.

There is a small, but growing, new class of data users amongst us. You've likely spotted one – that man hunched over a laptop at your neighborhood coffee shop, the woman swiping through a tablet in the park, or even that teen on the train whose eyes are glued to a video on his larger-than-average smartphone.

They are the digital nomads. Unlike the hunters and gatherers of the past, these nomads are always connected, regardless of where they are, and their expectations for connectivity have never been higher.

Posted in LTE, Mobile Data, Next-Generation Communications, Research, Small Cells, Wi-Fi, Wireless

Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation: Service Level-based Plans

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 3, 2013

In this second installment of the Six Degrees of Mobile Data Plan Innovation blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe takes a closer look at service level-based data plans. These plans can be used to give subscribers opportunities to enhance their mobile data services in exchange for a monthly or per-use fee.

What do consumers think about service level-based plans?

In February 2013, Alcatel-Lucent asked mobile broadband consumers in six countries about the concept of service level-based data plans. Globally, two-thirds of respondents said they would be interested in a premium service that could provide an enhanced quality of service (QoS).[1]

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

Bringing customers closer: Six degrees of mobile data plan innovation

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 28, 2013

By Rich Crowe, Marketing Director, Alcatel-Lucent IP Platforms

We’ve all heard about the dramatic rise of mobile data traffic, spurred on by expanding 3G and LTE networks, smart device use, compelling apps and mobile video consumption. We know that mobile network operators face shrinking voice and messaging revenues and growing competition from over-the-top (OTT) providers. Operators know the pressure is on. Can they transform network investment and data traffic demand into data revenue growth? Where will this growth come from?

In this eight-part blog series, Alcatel-Lucent’s Rich Crowe answers these questions by presenting six degrees of mobile data plan innovation that can help operators build closer relationships with customers and grow data revenues.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Customer Experience, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

Mobile Gets Straight to the Point (of Sale)

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 25, 2013

By Cassidy Shield, Head of Global Solutions Marketing for Content, Cloud, and Communications, Alcatel-Lucent

When consumers start buying data where they use it, the possibilities for consumption multiply.

Mobile is the growth engine of the communications industry, yet the way consumers purchase, discover, and engage with their data plan is in a store, on a website, or, even more archaically, via calling a call center. This is fundamentally backward, but it's also a clear wireless operator opportunity.

The opportunity lies in moving the point of sale (POS) to the smartphone or tablet itself, and it starts with a mobile application. With mobile data growing by leaps and bounds, operators have been grappling with how to manage and monetize the influx. Their conversations so far have centered on real-time charging, policy control, and personalization to transform how they bill, but there's been very little action on how to make these complex processes simple for consumers.

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

The Operational Imperative in the New Era of Mobile Data Personalization

Edited By Peter Bernstein on February 24, 2013

By Patrick McCabe

The growth of mobile data is driving significant revenue at various Internet and Over-the-The Top (OTT) companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook not to mention with various VOIP, video and content providers. The mobile service provider, who provides mobile Internet user’s connectivity to these companies, has yet to capitalize on this growth. To make this situation even more challenging the service provider’s voice and SMS revenues, historically representing over 70% of their total revenue, are flattening and are being slowly replaced with OTT versions of these services as found by mobiThinking.

However, there is a clear market demand to empower mobile users with a simplification of the mobile broadband experience while offering data usage transparency. There is also a demand to provide data services that are specifically tailored to the individual and their particular lifestyles and usage patterns. This is where the opportunity lies for the service provider. They need to “transform” their business to take advantage of this new ”mobile data frontier” by meeting consumer driven requirements while creating new and innovative streams of revenue.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Corporate News, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, Wireless

EARTH Consortium Shows the Way to 70 Percent Energy Savings on Wireless Networks

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 6, 2012

By Mae Kowalke

They wanted to reduce the energy consumption of mobile networks by half. Instead, they developed a framework that cut nearly three quarters of energy consumption.

Led by Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson over the course of two and a half years, the EARTH (Energy Aware Radio and neTwork tecHnologies) consortium of 15 telecommunications providers, vendors and academic institutions developed everything from more efficient components in radio base stations to solutions on the radio network level, according to a press release from Alcatel-Lucent. The research was partially funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7).

In the process, the consortium demonstrated how operators could save up to 70 percent of energy consumed in their networks using a holistic energy efficiency approach for 4G radio communications.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Corporate News, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Eco-sustainability, Next-Generation Communications, Small Cells, Wireless

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