Tarifica Announces Major Findings From Latest Research

A recent survey by Tarifica of both SMBs and Enterprises in the U.S. found that a great majority plan to use hybrid services to transition from premises-based telephony (“CPE”), contact center and Unified Communications to similar services in the Cloud over the next three years. Only about a quarter of companies surveyed did not plan to use hybrid services for telephony or UC, while a slightly higher percentage did not plan to use hybrid contact center services. Of those planning to use hybrid services the majority expect to phase out their use of CPE-based applications over time in favor of total cloud solutions. 

“The high level of planned adoption of hybrid solutions found in the research was somewhat surprising,” said Ken Dolsky, Tarifica Program Director, “but it makes sense as a risk management approach. Customers are sold on many cloud benefits and are looking for ways to try it with non-mission critical applications before moving more important applications.” 

The study analyzed the differences in needs between SMBs and Enterprises regarding successful hybrid solutions. It also determined the current level of satisfaction with different hybrid application implementations. One key finding is that customers report being far more satisfied with cloud-based telephony implementations than those for UC and contact center (see chart ). The major issues with the two latter applications are based on poor performance on the part of service providers both in the planning/implementation process and in ongoing service support. However, less than half of the customers were satisfied with telephony hybrid solutions, showing that operators have their work cut out for them. “In many countries operator market shares are fairly static. The transition to cloud via hybrid solutions is extremely strategic as it provides operators the opportunity to change the market share dynamics in their countries. Those who can satisfy their customers could dominate this market for some time to come,” stated Richard Dorfman, Managing Director at Tarifica.  

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile, fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Tarifica Global Insights Series

The pace of change in the mobile services industry is constantly accelerating. This means new opportunities will arrive faster than ever before and are likely to play out more quickly as well. Operators must watch carefully for these ‘waves of opportunities’ and quickly take advantage of them before they either become mainstream (and no longer have special value) or become obsolete as new disruptions impact the market.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series analyzes and reports on innovative practices in the development and marketing of consumer mobile plans. Each report describes a significant opportunity in mobile plan development and how operators are creating new plans in response to that opportunity. The series provides comprehensive, in-depth information that identifies best practices across more than 25 countries representing every region in the world, and enables operators to quickly and successfully take advantage of new strategies in plan development and marketing. The reports include case studies in multiple regions that describe best plan implementation and marketing practices that have enabled operators to quickly and successfully take advantage of new opportunities through innovative mobile plan development and marketing.

This series of reports is an important resource for operators that are searching for new and better ways to increase revenue and profits, desire to be perceived as leading edge ‘first movers,’ or need to defend their market share against disruptive offers from competitors. These reports enable operators to take advantage of Tarifica’s unique global vantage point to more quickly bring leading edge offers to market that capture new revenue opportunities.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series is an annual program comprised of four quarterly reports as shown below.

2016 Report Series 

QUARTER 1 (FEBRUARY 2016): Designed for Success – Developing Plans for the Youth and Student Demographic
 Globally, over half the world’s population is under the age of 30. While this percentage varies from country to country, the youth/student market segment has unique needs that must be understood in order to take advantage of this revenue opportunity. Moreover, when young people transition into adulthood and begin to make independent financial decisions, incumbency presents a unique opportunity for mobile operators to win long-term customers. This report will focus on the plans, promotions and other initiatives undertaken by operators to win and hold this key demographic.

QUARTER 2 (MAY 2016): Adapting to Changing Expectations – New Strategies for Pricing Smartphones and Pairing Them with Mobile Plans 
The practice of offering heavily subsidized devices tied to long-term plans no longer meets users’ needs for faster upgrades and shorter or more flexible contracts. As a result, operators are experimenting with numerous other models for selling high-end smartphones to their subscribers. This report will examine financing options, new phone replacement programs and other strategies aimed at helping consumers obtain smartphones and ramping up customers’ monthly mobile spend.

QUARTER 3 (AUGUST 2016): New Frontiers of Mobile Offerings –Partnerships with Streaming Audio and Video Services 
Operators around the world are exploring new revenue sources beyond mobile data. One approach is to partner with streaming media companies such as Spotify and Netflix. Mobile operators are increasingly offering plans with these services included or available as add-ons. This report will focus on the demographics and unique needs of this target market and their impact on plan structures, promotions, marketing practices and pricing. It will also analyze the differences among the various streaming services in terms of consumer perceptions.

QUARTER 4 (NOVEMBER 2016): Avoiding the ‘Dumb Pipe’ Trap – Innovative Approaches to Packaging and Pricing Data 
The decline in calling and messaging revenue has made many operators ever more dependent on data. This has made it difficult for operators to differentiate their offerings without lowering their per-GB price. Many mobile operators have been experimenting with new pricing models for their data to overcome this challenge. Among the many initiatives employed are offering time-limited data, having zero rated or dedicated data allowances for specific services/apps, offering rollover data, etc. This report will identify and analyze all of these tactics, with particular focus on their impact on consumer satisfaction, churn reduction and ARPU.

Analyst Support 

Every subscription comes with five hours of analyst support. Subscribers also receive one-on-one briefing sessions with Tarifica’s Analysts each quarter. Sessions, which include a Q&A format, are designed to help subscribers gain a further understanding of the strategies, innovations, trends and opportunities occurring worldwide in mobile plan development. A subscriber’s colleagues are welcome to attend these briefings.

Subscriber Benefits

The Tarifica Global Insights Series provides subscribers with two distinct layers of analysis:

First, the reports analyze how each service/strategy was deployed, branded and marketed. The reports dive deeply into every element of these plans (their included service volumes, one-time costs, recurring charges, restrictions, marketing campaigns, and more) to provide a comprehensive look at precisely how these plans are being designed and launched. This level of specificity is critical for operators seeking to create successful programs in their own market.

Second, these reports bring to bear worldwide examples and case studies analyzing the factors behind the success or failure of these new strategies. Subscribers to The Tarifica Global Insights Series will be able to learn from operators at the forefront of innovative practices and strategies. Subscribers will be able to view and compare many different versions of these strategies and understand the regional factors involved.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series provides meaningful business intelligence that can be used to design plans that decrease churn and win new customers. Each report evaluates the success/failure of strategies based on key performance indicators, assesses the ease/difficulty of replicating each approach and provides detailed sets of best practices for adapting the program to other markets.

The Tarifica Global Insights Series will facilitate subscribers’ efforts to increase revenue and profitability, gain market share, demonstrate innovative leadership and rapidly take advantage of new market opportunities.

Subscription Fee
The price for an annual subscription that includes all four quarterly reports, five hours of enquiry support and quarterly one-on-one briefings is US $15,000. The subscription fee will be reduced to US $10,000 for orders placed by 15 February 2016, representing a 33% early purchase discount.

About Tarifica
Tarifica is uniquely qualified to provide this series based on its singular focus on researching and analyzing mobile plans around the world. In maintaining the Tarifica Mobile Database, Tarifica’s research team tracks and catalogs every mobile plan, rate and offer from over 250 MNOs and MVNOs in 66 countries in every region of the globe. This effort enables Tarifica’s analysts to gain a broad understanding of the latest innovations in plan development occurring worldwide. With this new report series, Tarifica leverages this focus to highlight and analyze the most impactful strategies on a global level.

sales@tarifica.com

Tarifica

Many Consumers Unaware Of Throttling.

U.K. Prime Minister Unhappy With Mobile Coverage

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has recently instructed his cabinet ministers to find ways to improve mobile coverage in the country’s rural areas. This directive follows a meeting that was held between the chief executives of the U.K.’s mobile operators and the country’s former culture secretary, Maria Miller, in Q1 2014 to start planning for an increase in rural mobile coverage. The new culture secretary, Sajid Javid, will take on the project and meet with MNO executives for a progress update. The operators were asked to explore, in particular, the costs of adding coverage to the A and B roads in the villages of Shropshire, Dorset and Norfolk. As part of these discussions, the U.K. government has asked that the prospect of national roaming be considered—an idea that the operators are resisting. They argue that revenues lost through national roaming could prevent them from investing in their own networks and infrastructure and that a better way to help increase coverage would be to decrease the amount of bureaucracy and cost involved in erecting masts (towers) in rural areas.

Over the last few years, the U. K. government has launched several initiatives to help bring increased mobile and broadband coverage to areas of the country where there is minimal coverage or none at all—known as “notspots.” Among these initiatives are the mobile infrastructure project (MIP) and Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK). However, both of these programs have received criticism. For example, BDUK has been accused of mismanaging funds, operating in an inefficient manner and favoring BT over the country’s other operators. This new order from the Prime Minister is separate from the previous endeavors, and although the country’s four largest MNOS are all increasing their investments in 4G services, the operators fear that the reasons behind the regulation have a number of different bases—the areas in which the government has asked for increased coverage are core Conservative Party voting territories.

 

“Although the U.K. communications regulator Ofcom must act within the powers and duties set for it by Parliament, and its principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and consumers—which include increased coverage in underserved areas—regulators also need to try to work with operators. Any undue pressure—possibly politically driven in this case—on the regulator to implement changes under the guise of increasing service in the telecom industry may be met with resistance by the operators.”

Kamely Hayes,

Managing Editor,

The Tarifica Alert

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx