Telecom Companies in India are locked in competition for a Higher Share of the fast growing mobile internet market – leaving aside the nuances of technology – LTE, 3G, CDMA etc everyone is positioning themselves in the market as a serious internet access company and also trying to play a role the Device space as well as the online services space.
Being from this industry and having worked in the mobile internet space for some time I feel telecom companies need to focus on the following 8 action areas to come up trumps in the already cluttered and competitive market.
#1 – Capture/ Acquire disproportionate share of Smartphone/ High Value Users
#2 – Create an eco-sytem through partnerships – Today the most prominent use cases in India are Social Networking, Online Messaging Services, Music, Video Steaming and develop a pipeline of products aimed 2-3-4 quarters down the line
#3 – Develop a GTM strategy for Smart Devices – Gone are the days when internet access was through desktops, laptops – Mobile Handsets, Smartphones are the most common Access Points now – This is also rapidly changing and already tablets are a big segment and tomorrow Smart Watches would become a critical segment – Companies which are not able to reposition themselves constantly with technological advancements will fall behind.
#4 – Stimulate Use Cases that Drive Consumption – While India today claims to have in excess of 200 mn internet users – a large part of this is customers who are accidental mobile internet users – The operators need to get their act right on these ‘bottom of the pyramid’ customers who will unlock value in the coming time.
#5 – Develop High Quality Analytical abilities – Most operators are still understanding customer behaviour in a slow and traditional way. High end analytic would help in generating workable consumer insights which can help segmentation and targeting easier – Understanding of Usage behaviour is still at a primitive stage
#6 – Pricing of Internet bundles – For a long time in India Internet bundles have been sold basis MBs, GBs etc – Its become intuitive to the initiated user – For the new user/ rural user different pricing could help accelerate adoptions [p/min of browsing etc] – Also the pricing needs to be attractive from both a profitability of the operator and from the perspective of the end user. Since penetration level in India are still very low – This becomes a key point going ahead.
#7 – Rolling Out Least Cost Smart Networks for newer technologies is a key in Mobile Internet – Traditional Network planning method need an overhaul and more scientific traffic usage/ demand based network solutions need to be rolled out
#8 – Digital Service / m-adv strategy – This is a slightly more medium term strategy for operators who today are transmitting billions of websites to their users but have not yet tried shaping themselves as mobile advertising companies – Considering the detailed ananlytics and user behaviour patterns that they have access too this could become a business of the future for them where they transform today’s dumb pipe of data that they carry into a smart pipe and a potential money spinning business.
The Silly Point 