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MVNOs - Suffering Onboarding Migraines? Losing Revenues?Mikko Nurmimaki, head of product marketing at Spirent Communications’ Tweakker business unit, looks at the top five challenges facing new MVNOs in onboarding new subscribers and the solution ------------------------------------------------------------- If your firm has recently become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to monetise your brand, it’s highly probable that your care agents are suffering severe migraines in getting new customers onboard your network. And the result is lost revenues, high care costs and a poor customer welcome experience. There are five device setup challenges impacting your business and all are affecting its financial health. Device market diversification The first stems from the very nature of the mobile business ... the growing number of varieties of smartphones in today’s market. There are now more smartphone vendors than ever before with record number of distinct device models and low cost, low quality devices dominating the market. As a result, the sheer diversity of smartphone models deteriorates an MVNO’s ability to efficiently process APN setup for the devices of new onboarded customers and this situation can only get worse. According to research firm Ovum, by 2020, over 40% of smartphones sold globally will be in the sub $100 price range. Additionally, Spirent’s Device Intelligence Review 2015 exposed the dilemma of the growing number of distinct device models. Although the device population of mobile operator networks (MNOs) is usually dominated by only 10-30 device models, each network has thousands of device models in active use, which usually end up in MVNO networks from the booming BYOD business. Overall, increasing device market diversification puts growing demands on an MVNO’s device management operations. How to maintain sufficient device identification accuracy? How to ensure APN settings that always work? How to setup the increasing amount of non over-the-air (OTA) compliant smartphones and iOS devices? These are key questions facing new MVNOs. And in a nutshell, the inability to address the problems arising from device market diversification results in slower revenue uptake, destroys the welcome experience, increases customer care costs and gives severe migraines to call center specialists. A third of mobile handsets do not support standard OTA setup The second challenge facing MVNOs in onboarding new subscribers is the rising number of non-OTA capable devices coming into a virtual operator’s network. Based on Tweakker’s data, 27% of customers joining MVNO networks own a non-OTA capable device. In other words, nearly a third of joining devices do not support automatic OTA device setup functionality as specified by the Open Mobile Alliance Client Provisioning (OMA-CP) standard. When an owner of a non-OTA handset inserts an MVNO’s SIM into his/her handset, it doesn’t automatically setup the MVNO’s mobile data network settings (such as Internet and MMS APN). So, the user is unable to surf the Internet unless he or she is able to manually configure the handset. This is highly unlikely and will impact revenue uptake and increase customer care costs to sort the problem. Smartphones not smart enough for MVNO APN setup Let’s turn to the third challenge facing new MVNOs ... the latest builds of smartphones. There’s a common assumption that all modern smartphones have in-built device setup functionality and can read an operator’s information from a SIM card and then autonomously perform APN setup. These devices, however, mostly support only the setup settings of mobile network operators (MNOs), rarely the specific network settings of an MVNO. As a result, new customers are left confused when they don’t get a mobile data connection after subscribing to a new MVNO network. iOS handsets must be setup differently The fourth challenge facing MVNOs is how to support iPhones. It’s generally known that Apple iOS handsets do not support standard OTA device setup and hence the onboarding process often gets stuck at the iOS device setup stage. Based on Tweakker’s setup data intelligence from its customer base, 5-10% of customers joining MVNO networks are iOS users and are unable to use their new MVNO’s mobile data service unless they are able to self-configure device settings. Around the clock process Most MVNO SIM cards are distributed through various 3rd party retail points and 24/7 kiosks, which is one reason why the device setup process needs to run around the clock. Based on Tweakker’s global data, nearly 50% of device APN setups take place during off-business hours and usually 10% of them during the night. A failed device setup during off-business hours and night time causes most frustration among new customers because a 24/7 call center is seldom available. The problem is costly to fix through 24/7 customer care service. In summary, with mobile devices becoming increasingly complex to use, the number of distinct device models and OS versions continuing to grow, and the average quality of smartphones in a steep decline, customer care agents have an uphill task in getting customers onboard quickly, efficiently and at the lowest cost. So, is there a magic pill for new MVNOs to stop customer onboarding migraines? There is and in a nutshell, it’s Tweakker, the global leader in mobile device setup. Since 2009, Tweakker has been providing MVNOs cloud device setup solutions … the most accurate automatic OTA device setup settings on today’s market. It is the only vendor to provide MVNOs with a technology for OTA auto-configuration for iOS handsets. With its multi-language Manual Setup Guides, Tweakker helps the users of non-OTA capable handsets to setup their handsets for their new MVNO’s network. Today, over 70 MVNOs all over the world use the Tweakker device setup solution as the cornerstone of their business and perform over 500,000 new device setups every month. If you envisage an MVNO business without migraines, just contact [email protected] and ask for its unique pay-as-you-grow service. (www.tweakker.com) Ends As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments. |