New Revenue Feature Editorial

Best Practices for Aligning your Application Ecosystem with New Market Requirements

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The development of applications is big business in the mobile communications space, yet service providers are not always equipped to develop and launch their own apps. At the same time, certain providers have created challenges too big for developers to work within and the result is no one wins. 

Those who are driving success in applications are partnering with proven providers who have the resources to develop the apps consumers want. These same players understand there is a value-chain of players bringing new applications to end users and network providers can realize no additional revenue from their introduction beyond user access fees if they do not utilize network capabilities. 

According to research conducted by Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), 71 percent of network providers launch less than five applications per month. For those remaining providers who do launch more do so through the utilization of a developer platform or third-party hosted app store. The services providers driving revenue in this space have developed new business models that allow for greater collaboration with value-chain players who are willing to pay for the capabilities of network providers exposed as open APIs. Within the app developer community, 75 percent are willing to pay for subscriber preferences and location – and subscribers are willing to share it with the provider. 

Alcatel-Lucent research also shows that the demand for more content, more applications and more services has created an environment in which third-party application and content providers dominate. Such ACPs are delivering the applications and content generating huge increases in traffic, while also benefitting from the associated revenue. Network providers want a piece – but they need to know how to get it and be willing to be flexible enough to foster the necessary partnerships. 

A white paper prepared by Alcatel-Lucent, titled “Develop new revenue streams from existing network assets,” would be essential reading for service providers seeking to get their own slice of the revenue pie in this space. In essence, they must find new ways to use their network assets to work with third-party partners.

One way to do so is through the Alcatel-Lucent Open API Service, which provides a hosted, cross-carrier application mediation environment network providers can use to exposed network assets of value to multiple, third-party partners in order to improve time-to-market with new applications and multimedia content designed for specific end users. It’s a perfect way for network providers to stand out for the value they deliver – making them irreplaceable.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Harrison