Summary
1) We need to understand the cultural and consumer insights that have made other mobile value added services significant in Japan, South Korea - and even a developing market such as India.
2) European operators have looked at simple innovations to increase usage and revenue (stimulating a voice call).
3) It is unlikely that many wireless operators will make much of a push in the VoIP over wireless area given the inherent issues of voice quality and the increased likelihood of mobile to VoIP substitution.
Analysis
Whilst consumers value voice quality and reliability – they have come to expect a certain amount of interference through the very nature of voice on the move. Even in the UK, where operators claim 99% of population coverage – there are many areas where voice call quality suffers (given land planning restrictions on mobile cell sites in some areas). But this is the exception – and so the consumer only experiences limited frustration with voice quality.
We need to understand the cultural and consumer insights that have made mobile TV and other mobile value added services significant in Japan and South Korea. Even in the developing market of India, mobile gaming is significantly more attractive than in well developed European countries.
Indeed, basic communication services (voice and text messaging) still account for over 95% of most European mobile operators' revenues. In a mobile voice market suffering from commoditisation, substitution to VoIP/email/text/IM, operators in Europe have looked at simple innovations to increase usage and revenue. Basic services to stimulate a voice call such as answer phone call return – and operators texting users the phone number of anyone trying to call them and not leaving a message when they are out of service range or have their phone switched off.
France Telecom’s Orange network in the UK even flirted with ‘Wildfire’ answer phone voice services (a virtual PA relying on early generation AI) in the early 2000’s; despite early success in terms of PR and high-end consumers the service was withdrawn. Wildfire did provide an example of an upgraded voicemail but the cost of deployment and ongoing maintenance was high for Orange and it could not be priced at a level to drive consumer adoption.
I agree that there is much scope for voice messages that are delivered without ringing a person's phone (Pingers). This would be popular in Europe (especially the UK) where text messaging usage leads the world. The consumer insight here is an instant message without the frustration of typing a text on a small keyboard and not having to speak with the person you are contacting! The holy grail of mass unified messaging remains a utopian conference topic and it will be interesting to see how (and if) Apple’s visual voicemail takes the consumer closer to it.
I note that there is some commentary on VoIP and wireless converged services. Indeed T-Mobile may have the assets in both arenas to make a suitable play. However, the issue of call reliability for wireless usage on the move will become a bigger issue given the variable quality of VoIP calls inmost fixed hot spots. It is unlikely that many wireless operators will make much of a push in this area given the inherent issues of voice quality and the increased likelihood of mobile to VoIP substitution.
