As today’s subscribers do almost everything on their mobile devices, operators now have better insights into their phone usage and habits than any other internet company. This wealth of information, gained from millions of subscriber engagements with the network happening each and every day around the clock, is already proving beneficial from an internal marketing and cross-sell perspective. And there’s a lot more opportunity available.
Network usage data is also being used for customer experience management programs. Each web page loaded, app opened, message sent, and call placed helps paint a picture of how and when users are accessing the network, and operators can analyse and monitor it to identify any instance where the subscriber experience isn’t up to par. However, to make this a reality, operators first need the right tools in place to access, manage and process this data. Only then can they make use of the valuable insights their networks hold.
This has become particularly important following the roll out of 4G. The rise of high-speed mobile internet access means subscribers are using more capacity than ever before, tapping into over-the-top (OTT) services and running data-intensive applications across a wide variety of devices. On modern networks, therefore, it’s not uncommon for a small concentration of subscribers to represent a high proportion of data traffic and occupy all available cell capacity. In these situations, operators will provide a satisfying experience to a minor subset of their overall subscriber base, but a sub-standard experience to the majority. For this reason it has become increasingly difficult for operators to ensure a consistent quality of experience for the masses, which has led them to take action to keep subscribers satisfied and reduce churn.
By making use of end-to-end geoanalytics and optimisation tools that span the entire network from RAN to core, operators have been able to unlock the value of their subscriber data, making data analytics work for them to improve CEM. Many operators are already realising the potential of real-time intelligence gained from the network, using vital subscriber and device analytics to plan the launch of new services, while also managing the impact this will have on network resources and the customer experience. But there’s more to this data than meets the eye. It can also create entirely new revenue streams.
By unlocking the value of these huge data mountains, operators can open up an entirely new set of commercial opportunities. They can process, analyse and anonymize geolocation and usage data to build new business opportunities, such as highly targeted enterprise advertising programs. This has never been more important than in today’s app-centric mobile landscape where traditional revenues are under fire by IP-based OTT players. The use of network data in this way is only going to increase now operators have recognised the importance of mobile advertising, as demonstrated by Verizon’s recent acquisition of AOL.
Data analytics has long been used as a powerful tool to ensure a positive subscriber experience. But now, by partnering with the right big data analytics provider to help access it, and by recognising the value network data holds beyond improving CEM, operators have discovered a range of new possibilities.
Guillaume Le Mener is head of data monetisation for Tektronix Communications, the leading provider of insight and analytics for the telecommunications industry.
