Why Mobile Operators Need to Get Closer to Subscribers – Literally

Ofer Talmor, VP Products, Saguna Networks

Getting closer to subscribers can help mobile operators with two of their biggest challenges: enhancing customer loyalty and offering new, differentiating services that attract new customers and to increase the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

Here is how.

In mobile networks, every content and application request needs to travel across the entire network and back to the client. This round trip takes a long time, even under the best network conditions. However, if we get closer and serve the content and applications directly from the Radio Access Network (RAN), instead of the mobile core, the response times would be slashed.

The response time has a huge impact on the network performance (see figure 1), which is the number one factor affecting loyalty (see Figure 2).

This means that by getting closer and delivering directly from an Open-RAN platform, we can effectively enhance the customer loyalty.

Figure 1: Latency Has a Huge Impact on Page Download Time (Source: Mike Belshe, Google 2010)

Figure 2: Network Performance is the No. 1 Operator’s Loyalty Driver (Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 2013)

This brings us to the next point; differentiating services. As Ed Gubbins, Senior Analyst at Current Analysis notes, “RAN optimization is a crucial focus for operators today and for the foreseeable future. In addition to better controlling the customer experience, operators should be investigating the potential these technologies have to introduce new monetization models and services.”

Having an Open-RAN content delivery platform opens the door to new monetization and partnership opportunities for service providers. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Retail: merging digital and physical retail user experiences to increase sales. Today, shoppers increasingly rely on mobile devices for updated information while they are shopping. With location and user aware capabilities, the open-RAN enables retailers to take the physical-digital shopping experience to the next level.

Advertising:  video is one of the most powerful forms of advertising. It becomes even more effective when delivered at the right time and place based on a user’s preferences. With user and location aware capabilities, the Open-RAN can deliver personalized video ads to mobile users directly from the RAN.

Social media: in our social mobile world, users share increasing amounts of content. Until now, the mobile infrastructure posed a barrier to fast video sharing, especially in a crowded venue. By getting closer to the mobile user, the Open-RAN provides a true broadband experience to users on the go.

To hear more about the Open-RAN platform, its benefits and the new service possibilities it provides, we invite you to our presentation at the LTE World Summit event, entitled “Use-cases: Monetizing Novel Services Delivered from the Open RAN-Cloud”. The presentation is scheduled for June 25 at 2:40.

See you there!

Ofer Talmor, VP Products, Saguna Networks

Ofer is well experienced in research and identification of new markets, product strategy and firm marketing, with 14+ years in the industry and vast hands-on experience. Before joining Saguna, Ofer established and managed “Storewards”, which developed a system that connects brick-and-mortar stores and locations with mobile users. Prior to that, Ofer served as director of product management at “Surf”, a tier1 telecom manufacturers OEM provider. Ofer holds a BA in Computer Science and an MBA, both with honors.