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Telecom developments - SMS Core Network Router
In many parts of the world SMS message volumes continue to grow at rates similar to the boom SMS period in Europe in the early years of the new millennium. Those SMS volumes and revenues in Europe are now flattening out but in other parts of the world several years of catch-up remain. SMS, in general, is alive, well and thriving. Mobile Network Operators, nevertheless, need to adopt more efficient ways of delivering messages using new solutions that will also enable them to introduce compelling new SMS-related services. Such solutions will help grow ARPU and will protect both users and operators from the security threats that now face the mobile domain and those that could damage an operator’s brand.
By Ludovic Patraud, Head of Product Management and Product Marketing, Jinny Software
The current market dynamics impacting SMS usage sees a growth in subscribers, their desire to send more and more SMSs with a considerable resulting increase in SMS volumes but, in parallel, an actual decrease in the price of sending individual SMSs. So, whilst users appear willing to spend more on SMS messaging by volume, operators must reduce the internal cost of sending these messages in order to find ways of maintaining their falling SMS margins, as well as extracting more revenues from the process overall.
One way of doing so is to complement the functionality provided by the traditional SMSC with the new technology and functionality of SMS Routing. In the past, the sending of SMS across any network has been inherently unreliable requiring store and re-try/forward methodology, which had an acceptable success/failure rate, though one with room for improvement. This was mainly due to lack of coverage and infrastructure that required improved optimisation. Now, with more reliable coverage, networks, and always-on handsets, it is accepted that there is around an 80% chance, or more, that a message will be delivered first time. It is also time to introduce an SMS technology solution with greater capabilities than the traditional SMSC enabling new SMS services to be deployed and maximising the value of SMS, today.
SMS Core Network Router technology augments the legacy functions of existing SMSC technology. Whilst it replaces that part of the SMSC responsible for more efficient message delivery, traditional store and re-try/forward functionality can be left to the legacy SMSC platform in order to maximise existing legacy assets. The technology offers a new layer that enables the operator to do much more than the traditional SMSC, which had previously not actually handled all the SMS terminating traffic on the network.
Indeed, in most of the GSM world, it is the SMSC from the operator’s home network, which is technically responsible for the end-to-end delivery of any message, independent of whether the recipient users belong to the same network or to a foreign network. (This fundamentally differs from email and MMS where it is the receiving network’s responsibility to ensure these ‘messages’ get through, no matter where they originated.)
Therefore, some elements of the message flow will not go through the receiving network SMSC; they only pass directly from the originating sending network to the recipient via the signalling links.
Capturing all these terminating SMS messages, the SMS router technology enables introduction of new revenue-generating services to users in relation to these messages, such as personalisation and also security solutions that will protect both the recipient and the network brand. Introducing this technology the operator can, for example, now offer a messaging anti-malware security service or parental control for €3 per month.
The Router enables operators to redefine their core network architecture supporting the SMS traffic, in a way disrupting the traditional SMSC model, which had previously looked at ‘how many’ messages could be handled rather than the ‘different ways’ in which messages could be handled.
For an operator, the benefits of deploying an SMS Core Network Router is to optimise its SMS network architecture in a way that will deliver increased throughput, lowered Opex, increased flexible, rule-based message control and decision – which is critical for performance and future-proof migration support towards IMS and IP messaging. It also provides a de facto new customer-centric SMS services capability. In turn, these will ensure customer loyalty and significantly help drive ARPU upwards.
For users, the benefits of the SMS Core Network Router being deployed by their network include the facility to send and receive new time-sensitive services. They can also be reassured by opt-in spam/malware and unwanted content protection. Users – notably corporate users - can also experience personalised SMS services matching the email-like experience.
Personalisation services such as copy, auto-reply, forward, and out-of-office services, are enabled by the SMS Router architecture and are key in the quest to drive ARPU. They offer users increased control over their communication, and give operators a major differentiator from the competition..
These features inherited from email-type capabilities are all revenue-generating and cannot be enabled without the SMS core network. By intercepting MO and MT SMS traffic, sponsorship with targeted advertising inserted into SMSs is also made possible, with comprehensive user opt-in management. This is a key enabler for SMS personalised mobile marketing.
An SMS Core Network Router provides a highly flexible approach based on a wide set of criteria to enforce MT SMS interception on a conditional basis, activating network-level anti-fraud and anti-spam functions, as well as customer-level protection via subscriber identity masquerading.
Messaging anti-fraud recommendations of the GSMA depend on the introduction of SMS Core Network Router technology by GSM operators worldwide, as the router’s ability to intercept MT SMSs originating on foreign networks is a critical technological requirement. The extensive SMS security solution relies on a two-layer approach: low-level SS7 network fraud control; and the actual messaging layer analysis with spam and virus detection – for full and optimal protection.
Brand protection is an absolute requirement for leading operators and MVNOs in mature markets such as those in Western Europe and the US, as well as market regions where large amounts of spam and serious security issues exist, such as the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific Region.
Deployments of SMS Routers are accelerating in all regions with router technology and capabilities answering the varied needs of a great many operators. Currently, there are a number of vendors treading this path, with industry estimates stating that over 150 SMS Routers have so far been deployed amongst the 600+ and growing GSM operators. The market for SMS Core Routers, therefore, remains at growth stage and is split between:
The market dynamics are that, increasingly, ‘growth’ and ‘emerging’ markets are facing the same issues as mature markets where SMS Core Network Routers offer an ARPU-generating architecture and eventually enable a much easier migration to the IMS world.
From South-East Asia, like the Phillippines, where recent statistics show more than 640,000 messages per second being sent in this market, to regions like the North America, SMS traffic volume is still rising and more efficient delivery is an absolute requirement. At the same time, maturity of many markets regarding SMS forces operators to create more value from existing traffic. Regardless of mature, growth or emerging markets, all operators the world over will derive value through the implementation of SMS Routers. • Ludovic Patraud (Jinny Software)Independent research amongst 1,000 mobile users in the UK commissioned by CelleBrite, the leading provider of cell phone synchronization and management systems, revealed that mobile operators, mobile retailers and device manufacturers are missing an important opportunity to increase user loyalty and increase revenue and ARPU by failing to effectively market a mobile data back-up solution to users at the point of sale.
The research, amongst 1,000 mobile users revealed that just 18% of users back up their mobile data in spite of the fact that 47% of us have already lost a mobile phone. The research also revealed that 47% of users were unaware of services offered by network operators in store to back-up and synchronize mobile data and 48% of those expressed willingness to pay somewhere between £5 and £20 extra and wait up to 10 minutes to receive such a service.
Another significant finding was that only a minority of users (16%) change handsets more than once a year. 25% of respondents admitted that the difficulty in transferring mobile data dissuades them from upgrading to a new phone. The survey also revealed that 27% of users would change handsets more regularly if they could transfer their mobile content onto the new phone at the point of sale.
The 47% of us who have lost our phones admit that recompiling the lost contacts and mobile data such as photos, music, text messages and videos can take up to six months and 24% admit that they never manage to fully recapture the lost data.
Yossi Carmil, Co-CEO of CelleBrite comments, “Lost contact information will negatively impact on mobile usage and so indirectly affect not only the users, but also the operators themselves. Operators and device manufacturers need to grasp the mettle and educate and encourage users to back-up their data by offering it as a type of mobile data insurance policy as part of their customer insurance package offered at the point of sale.”
Further interesting findings included the fact that contacts and content are equally important to users. Some variations exist in terms of gender and age regarding the relative importance of content versus contacts: with 44% of respondents claiming that contacts were more important than mobile content and 38% rating content more important than contacts. Women were more likely to favour mobile content (47%) like photos, videos and music over content (39%) and men more likely to value contacts (48%) over content (30%).
Survey respondents not only expressed an interest in the getting their mobile data transferred to their new phone and backed-up at the point of sale, but were also willing to wait anything up to 20 minutes.
Commenting on the overall findings Mr Carmil added, “What is clear from this survey is that operators, retailers and device manufacturers are missing a trick in not providing a mobile data back-up and synchronization service that is valued by their users, alongside their standard device and service packages. In doing so, they can, not only differentiate their service offering, but also generate additional revenue and present it as a type of mobile data insurance plan.” • 16-2-10
The GSMA, the global organization that represents more than 750 of the world’s mobile operators, is concerned about the potentially negative impact the bill, recently sent by the Argentine Executive Branch to the Parliament, will have on consumer choice and economic development. The bill seeks to extend internal taxes on mobile handsets to a 17% nominal rate for imports and/or sales which are not produced in the Tierra del Fuego special economic zone.
"This measure will clearly have a significant counter effect on the expansion Argentina was showing, as well as its plans to promote greater digital inclusion, which led the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to rank the country first in Latin America,” said Ricardo Tavares, Senior Vice-President of Public Policy, GSMA [i].
This bill has been under discussion at the Lower House and was going to be submitted to vote without opportunity to debate in the House Commission of Telecoms. The reasons given by the government are that handsets are part of a set of "luxury" goods with "high energy consumption", a classification that the GSMA feels is incorrect. This measure will affect almost all consumers of telecommunications services across the country, which already boasts more than 43 million mobile connections [ii]. Only 2% of mobile devices are produced in Tierra del Fuego, therefore, 98% of devices will incur a higher price and will potentially greatly reduce people’s access to telecom services, affecting consumption and the overall national economy.
“Significant mobile growth over the last five years has enabled Argentine citizens, despite income level, to gain access to telecommunications services,” said Tavares. “Millions of Argentines will see an increased cost of 17% on a product that is an essential working tool for SMEs, independent workers, students and entrepreneurs. The GSMA is concerned that taxation is being considered at this time of financial crisis and feels that it would serve to restrict productivity, employment, community development, economic growth and social inclusion.”
This type of taxation has proved counterproductive in other countries where it has been implemented, affecting consumption and therefore tax revenue. The GSMA would not like to see this happen in a leading Latin American country and at a time when handset imports and sales are in a period of retraction, as a consequence of market maturity and the global economic recession. According to the General Administration of Customs, terminals import had fallen by 18% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2008 and 30% in the first of 2009. • June 2009Leading Mongolian mobile network operator, MobiCom Corporation, has received an award as ‘Best New Technology’, in recognition of its remote GSM service using Altobridge’s Remote Community Solution.
Hosted by the country’s ‘My Computer magazine’ in partnership with the Information Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) of the Government of Mongolia, the award recognises the positive impact Altobridge’s Remote Community Solution is having on enterprises and communities in remote parts of Mongolia. My Computer magazine, together with the coordinators, the ICTA, also comprised the award evaluation committee.
Mobicom has been deploying Altobridge’s Split-BSC Architecture – a core technology of Altobridge’s Remote Community Solution – across rural Mongolia since it awarded the company a three-year, fully-managed rural GSM contract in April last year. The deployments are providing cost-effective personal mobile communications for small user groups as low as 100, in village, enterprise and government border-post scenarios. Altobridge’s unique GSM architecture enables MobiCom to dramatically cut the costs of delivering communication services to these communities.
Munkhbold Udval, Director Research and Development Center, MobiCom Corporation, said, “We are delighted to have been awarded this ICTA 2008 award for the delivery of our mobile services to remote user groups, enabled by Altobridge’s remote GSM technology, which has helped us deliver profitable, much-needed, quality communications to isolated communities and enterprise installations.”
Mike Fitzgerald, Altobridge CEO, said, “We are delighted MobiCom has received this award. The compelling business model provided by our solution has enabled the operator to connect communities and enterprises still cut off from the benefits of mobile communications and, at the same time, experience new revenue streams where previously none existed. We are looking forward to a long and successful partnership with MobiCom, and the potential for future similar awards together.” • 16-2-09
Headquartered at Kerry Technology Park, Ireland and with regional offices in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, USA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Altobridge is a leading provider of telecommunications solutions that cut the cost of communications to/from and between wireless devices. The company’s patented Split-BSC Architecture (Access Management Gateway Platform) and Local Connectivity Platform cut backhaul costs to/from base station sites as well as providing local call switching at the base station site. These solutions have been successfully tested and deployed across the worlds wireless telecommunications networks as well as the following vertical markets: Remote Community/Enterprise, Aeronautical, Maritime, Secure and Emergency/First Responder wireless communication.
Altobridge licenses its software to the world leading wireless telecommunications vendors and Mobile Network Operators and can also provide fully managed services. Wireless operator clients include: Maxis (Remote Community), Mobicom (Remote Community), AeroMobile (Aeronautical GSM), Blue Ocean Wireless (Maritime GSM). Vendor clients include: Ericsson (Local Connectivity).
Headquartered at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, MobiCom is the first cellular telephone service operator in Mongolia, operated since 18th March 1996 as a Mongolian-Japanese joint venture. Currently, MobiCom Corporation provides a wide range of services including GSM cellular communications, international communications, Internet and satellite communications, wireless local loop and other services to both corporate and consumer markets.
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