In the afternoon at Mobilize, a panel of carriers discussed mobile data topics, ranging from how to make money on VoIP to what business opportunities they would invest in if they had $100 million. The panel, moderated by consultant Chetan Sharma, included: AT&T’s (NYSE: T) Michael Woodward; Sprint’s (NYSE: S) Russ McGuire, Hutchinson Whampoa/3’s Frank Meehan; Orange Labs’ Satya Mallya; and T-Mobile USA’s Venetia Espinoza.
Unlimited Plans: Sprint’s McGuire: “From a revenue perspective, I think there’s challenges and opportunities and how you balance the opportunity cost. We have a plan called “Simply Everything,” and so the question is the next time you come up with something great, the question is do you throw that in with Simply Everything, or is it a value-add, but the argument is, is that the plan calls “Simply Everything.” On the network side: One of the things we’ve done recently is introduce the femtocell product, so if you can move home and office traffic off your network and on to a femtocell, you are managing the costs of your network.”
Carriers are inherently a social network: T-Mobile’s Espinoza: “We’ve seen quite a bit of success with our MyFaves product. Three times the picture-sending than a user that doesn’t have myFaves. With our stick together brand, we are looking for apps and services that go along with that…When you think about who really matters to you, it’s about connecting those people.”
Is there a business in VoIP for carriers?: Hutchinson’s Meehan: “We are all about creating value, and actually the Skype phone makes us more margin in any phone in contract and pre-paid with the exception of the iPhone. Outside of the U.S., the predominately pre-paid. 65 percent of the UK market is pre-paid, and five percent of that is 3G. We have to get the mass market energized, but what they all use is IM, email and social networking and Skype. There’s massive churn in pre-paid across all markets. So, we said for 10 pounds a month, you spend in voice and text, then you get Skype for free, but anything else will cost you (like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps). That created a tremendous amount of loyalty. It works brilliantly. We have a huge level of top-offs.”
More after the jump on the definition of open and what apps they would invest in…
The Definition of Open: T-Mobile’s Espinoza: “I’m pleased to announced the beta of our devPartner Community that gets rid of some of the hurdles associated with getting to market. Historically, carriers have been difficult to do business with…We want it to be transparent on what it takes to do business with T-Mobile.” Hutchinson’s Meehan: “We are throwing it open to everyone. We are so focused on getting the mass market energized…And we are doing well with it.” Sprint’s McGuire: “The question is how do we enable business models using our network at the core. It’s by opening up to devices, like the Kindle…Titan will be available later this year, which is a Java implementation that allows developers be able to develop once for the entire portfolio of handsets, so they can write once for all handsets.” AT&T’s Woodward: “The next great pockets to mine is data. We are taking our existing user base and trying to get a substantial number using data and downloading applications. The iPhone set a new standard for finding them, downloading them and updating them.”
What apps would you invest in?: AT&T’s Woodward: “Getting access that allows access across PCs and mobiles. Sprint’s McGuire: “We don’t have the best insight into what would be successful. Hutcinson’s Meehan: “If someone gave me a mass market handset that made the Internet relevant, that would be sweet. I need some new user interfaces.” Orange: “Location is a strong context in mobile. Things that make life really easy, where location becomes the coloring on how you interface.” T-Mobile: “I would spend it on easing discoverability. I also think you can see examples of this in the off-deck world like Thumbplay. I think users feel really constrained on the devices they have today.
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