The UC&C opportunity for mobile operators – Part 2

Frank Paterno, PGi

In the first part of this article we looked at how findings from recent research undertaken by PGi, a dedicated provider of collaboration solutions, in conjunction with Mobile World Live, revealed a 70% decline in users accessing meetings via desk phones, writes Frank Paterno, the vice president of global carriers at PGi. We outlined how the smartphone is now the go-to device for UC&C services, underlining the increaing mobility of workers. In this article, we look at the significance of the findings with regard mobile network operators and their projected influence on the use of UC&C services on smartphones.

The survey findings clearly showed that mobile network operators (MNOs) are expected to drive the use of UC&C services on smartphones over the next five years (38%). However, 37% of respondents consider over-the-top (OTT) application providers to be well positioned in this sector. The MNO lead could be due to their role in improving network coverage, enhancing call quality and their established UC&C expertise, the report states.

Close to 75% of respondents said they use OTT applications for UC&C sessions, while close to half of respondents who use OTT apps said more than 75% of their conference calls are over OTT applications, reflecting the huge popularity of OTT apps for mobile communications in general. The primary driver for using OTT apps is ease of use (36%), which is rated as more important than the fact that OTT apps also tend to be less expensive to use (almost 26%).
When asked what would be the killer app to drive adoption of a mobile-optimised UC&C solution, almost 36% of respondents cited the intelligent integration with other applications, while more than 30% believe service ubiquity across devices to be a primary driver.

Interestingly, in terms of which network developments would increase the use of UC&C on smartphones, just less than 13% considered enabling 5G an important driver.

Certainly, 5G is still some way ahead and may not yet be on the radar of many users, and 4G and 4.5G networks are still evolving. A much higher percentage – almost 33% – believe that improved network coverage would have greater potential to drive UC&C take-up on mobile, while almost 30% cited improved voice quality as an important driver.

The type of company that is expected to drive the use of UC&C services on smartphones over the next five years is a mobile operator, according to 38% of respondents. This is not surprising, given that an improvement in network coverage is regarded as an important driver of increased frequency of usage of smartphones for these services. Furthermore, mobile operators already focus heavily on the provision of UC&C services to their enterprise customers.

At the same time, 37% of respondents also think that OTT app developers will be well positioned to drive this sector, indicating that mobile operators should be aware of this demand and must be willing to integrate with other applications in an intelligent way. Respondents do not consider mobile device manufacturers to be well positioned to drive UC&C use on smartphones.

The future of UC&C services on smartphones holds huge potential for the different players in the value chain, particularly for mobile operators, app developers and device manufacturers since they all enable and support the technologies required for a high-quality mobile UC&C experience.

For mobile operators, educating users on the benefits of features, such as HD audio, messaging capabilities and improvements in network coverage, is essential to encourage people to increase how frequently they use their smartphones for conference calls. Voice quality is cited as a major barrier to the use of smartphones for UC&C, yet users do not always appear to equate voice quality with the availability of technologies such as HD audio.

Addressing these issues and tailoring future smartphone developments around UC&C and messaging apps could be key to persuading people to use their smartphones more for UC&C services, continuing a clear trend away from desktop phones and towards mobile devices.

The popularity of OTT applications also indicates the requirement to partner with UC&C providers to offer services that are attractive, easy to use, inexpensive and relevant to users.

Building on these reasons, the survey shows why operators are best positioned to drive UC&C usage on smartphones over the next five years. It is clear the desktop phone is no longer the device of choice for communication and collaboration in the enterprise, as users prefer to use their own smartphones in an increasingly mobile world.

The full report can be found here.

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