Every country has a Telecom Regulatory body which decides upon the strategic points to enhance the telecom penetration in their country. Most of time this regulatory body seems like the police force to the telecom operators. Because most of the regulations they prepare are mostly related to telecom business. Well that is OK though, but I think there can be taken some sort of regulation clauses which will deal with subscriber comfort and hence will increase the service penetration. Now why the regulatory body came in the discussion? This is because, they are the body who will impose the rules and guide the telecom operators to do business in a way so that entire nation can be benefited. So it will be a win-win solution where service increment will amplify the revenue of the telcos as well as the telcos will do something which will increase the service usage.
What I am writing here may be implemented in some countries. But these are just the thoughts from my side:
1.Combined Service Promotion:
Suggestion:The Telecom Regulatory Body should impose the telecom operators, vendors and related parties to jointly conduct an educational promotion each month (or within a certain period) which may focus the basic service (sending MMS, browsing a webpage, sending email etc) usage.
Explanation:
It is seen that, in most general case the operators are giving their own product advertisements. As an example, we can consider a specific product lets say: MMS Photo Album. The concept is, subscriber will take a snap by his or her camera enabled phone and then will send it as an MMS to a short code (lets say 8MMS which is 8667) and later this picture can be accessed from a WAP portal or can be shared by his or her friends and family. So of course, the operator will promote this service and their short code through TV, Paper, Radio, leaflet etc advertisement mediums. Which of course is logical. But after all this promotional expenditures when this operator looks back in the revenue figure it is seen negative or marginal. So the result comes like this operator becomes less interested in this types of services which finally stops the increment of such services. And it is not expected.
At first I must say that here in this article I am focusing the situation of less developed countries.
So Why the revenue figure is less? Because I think, here in these countries very less people are carrying high end handsets. It is seen that, not more than 20% of the subscriber base are carrying MMS/WAP enabled handsets. But if you say service penetration (lets say for MMS Photo Album) you will see that, it is very small percentage of that 20% are accessing the service resulting a smaller cash inflow for the operator. Why? Because at first the subscriber needs to know how to send MMS, how to visit a webpage etc (the basic education).
When the service is tricky, people generally thinks that the service is not for him. But it possible to educate the people about the basic service usage (like sending MMS, browsing a webpage, sending email etc) through TV advertisements, Roadshows, paper advertisements etc.
The Telecom Regulatory Body can impose the operators as well as the vendors (platform vendors, handset manufacturers etc) to arrange an Educational Service Promotion each month where everybody (operator, vendor or third paties) will share the promotional cost. In the advertisement if the operators agrees they can also declare their related service short codes too.
2.Generalized Service Short Codes
Suggestion: For some general services the regulatory body can impose a specific short code to be used so that the subscribers may not get confused. Also each short code can provide a HELP service support for that specific service.
Explanation:
Just think about a country like Bangladesh, where there are six mobile operators are competing with several types of service (like text, IVR, MMS based services etc). Also another point to be noted is: now these operators are competing for the Subscriber’s Handset Time. Meaning to say that, one subscriber is holding several SIMs from different operators (ie. Different packages). They are using different SIMs each day. So one operator (or one SIM) is not getting full 24 hours of that subscriber. So the operators are getting very small time to do business with this subscriber. During this small time this subscriber is getting confused about the specific short code to get a specific service (lets say Astronomical information). Because he does not know what is the short code for this operator to get Astronomical information. So he will not request for any Astronomical information this time and the operator will loose a revenue (even if it is small).
Of course the regulatory body cannot take care of each and every short codes & the intention behind the services, but what can be done is: for each unique service type (like Astronomical service) the regulatory body can assign a unique short code. The first comer may get the benefit to propose the short code. And then the regulatory body can request all other operators to use the same short code to access this service. So one short code for one service.
It is nice to say that: this concept is recently implemented here in Bangladesh by BTRC (Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Committee) when all the operators were preparing for collecting donation for the SIDR (a massive cyclone) effected peoples by MO SMS. Banglalink, one of the fastest growing telecom operators here proposed and implemented 1010 as the short code and for each MO SMS the charge assigned was be 10TK. So every subscriber who sends an empty SMS to 1010 will be charged 10TK. Then BTRC sent mail to every operator saying that, if any operator is interested to collect donation through MO SMS for SIDR the short code will be 1010 and the price for MO SMS will be 10TK.
Also for each short code, it can be imposed that : every short code must have a HELP support so that subscriber can just type HELP and request for help information related to that service.
But it is also true that, not all services can be assigned a general short code.
3. Government Services
Suggestion: Government should propose and impose some basic short codes for the citizen service and let those be implemented by Regulatory Body.
Explanation:
Government along with the Regulatory body can define some lifestyle requirements which will help their citizen. The example of these types of services may be: Disaster Alert, Donation Alert, Police Complain etc. So irrespective of the subscriber’s SIM connection they can access these common short codes.
4.Standard Refund Policy:
Suggestion: The Regulatory Body can make an agreement with the operators on some specific cases when the subscriber can claim and get the refund.
Explanation:
In the developing countries most of the people like to have prepaid connection. And the prepaid customers are always so much concern about the balance. Because it is seen that the most accessed service is Balance Enquiry through USSD call. The most common point that discourages the subscribers from using some rich services is that: the subscriber is paying for that service but he is not getting that. This mostly fits in the case of content services.
So in this type of cases, there should have explicit clauses stating the clear Refund Policy. The Regulatory Body can separately sit with the operators and can come up with the specific points when a subscriber may claim and get the refund.
5. Standardizing Timeout Rule
Suggestion: Regulatory body should impose the timeout value for some certain types of basic services. The type timeout value may be imposed for: Voice Call, GPRS attachments etc. Also there should also have some regulation for the subscription based services.
Explanation:
I totally agree with the article “Lowering the Barriers” posted by John Leonard. Sometimes it is seen that some devices remain attached with the GPRS node even if the subscriber is not browsing, causing drainage of balance. I saw in our network these types of devices are kept attached for around six hours and then the session times out. This is one type of problem which is caused for the specific device nature may be.
There are some other services also, where the subscribers may face balance drainage. One example may clarify this. Generally every mobile operator has a Call Center IVR and has a number (like lets say 123). Sometimes it is seen that some subscribers called the number and took suggestion but did not disconnect the call. If the system has not implemented the timeout feature then what will happen to his balance we can assume.
Also there are some subscription based content services which imposes MT charge. Subscribers subscribe once and then continually get MT SMS or MMS or out dialed system generated calls (like news service). But after some days the subscriber forgets about his registration but continuously receives the contents which is charged for each time they receives those contents. If the subscriber is a postpaid subscriber then he may not understand though how he is loosing money. Of course this creates a negative impact over the operator.
So there should have a specific direction for setting up the timeout value for different types of services (like voice calls, GPRS attachments etc).
For the subscription based services either the operator or the content provider must ask the subscriber (after each certain period) whether he is interested to continue this subscription service or not.
Conclusion:
The Telecom Regulatory Committee of a country, especially in the developing country, can contribute largely and positively in shaping the citizen mobile lifestyles as well as can help the telecom operators to be benefited amplifying their revenue. The proposals stated above are just some thoughts from my side. Your input can take this concept in a right and formatted direction.
