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MARKETS » NFV Pandemic Tech News
October 08, 2008
Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income UsersDriving innovation to increase voice revenue
Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) helps you meet the unique demands of high-growth markets through end-to-end solutions that combine economy with creativity. To expand service to customers with low incomes or in remote locations, our Mobile Voice Solution provides cost-effective ways to transform your services, networks, and businesses — and achieve profitable business cases. Backed by Alcatel-Lucent’s proven experience in challenging physical environments, the solution includes: radio access in multiple technologies, flexible backhaul and backbone networks with the option to leapfrog to IP/IT transformation, low-cost handsets and affordable services designed especially for low-income users. In addition, network services, including business consulting, are available to assist you through-out the service adoption process, speeding your time to market.
Your Partner In High-Growth Economies
To enable affordable voice and basic data communications for high-growth markets, Alcatel-Lucent takes an innovative, end-to-end approach. Our solution makes cost-effective use of flexible wireless technology, which can support compelling, differentiated services for entry-level voice subscribers, as well as broadband users with high ARPU. It offers new and unique partnerships with CPE vendors, third parties and public stakeholders — to enable creative new business models, such as hosted mobile services centers.
And it helps you transform your service offerings to meet the needs of subscribers who typically spend less than $10 US per month. Alcatel-Lucent has the necessary technologies, expertise and experience to bring together all the elements of this solution, working closely with you to provide affordable, voice communications for all.
The Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users includes:
With this cost-effective, end-to-end approach, the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users can help you increase revenues, expand margins — and achieve profitable growth.
 THE CHALLENGES: AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESS
Despite the clear need for basic voice services, telephone penetration is still low in high-growth markets. Most of the potential subscribers in these regions have low incomes or live in remote areas, making it difficult for mobile service providers to reach them using traditional methods. But analysts such as Gartner (News - Alert) group predict that, by 2010, world-wide mobile connections will increase by 1.5 billion, and emerging markets will account for 87 percent of the increase. To benefit from this opportunity, service providers need innovative solutions that support compelling services for low-income subscribers, while meeting the key challenges of access and affordability. The solutions must include new ways to extend networks cost effectively to unserved areas, reduce the cost of subscriber acquisition and guarantee a return on investment.
The Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users meets these key requirements.
Highly cost-effective service delivery
Whether you want to gain new voice subscribers in dense urban areas or remote villages, Alcatel-Lucent can help you develop a single, cost-effective service delivery architecture to meet your subscribers’ diverse needs. Our solution offers innovative radio access, flexible backhaul and the opportunity to leapfrog to IP/IT transformation to achieve radical cost efficiencies, as well as service agility and differentiation.
 You can choose the wireless technology that is best suited to your existing assets and market demands. Then add QoS differentiation features that enable economical new voice offerings, without affecting service performance levels for subscribers with more advanced services and higher ARPU.
 Transformative business partnerships
To take advantage of new voice opportunities, service providers need to extend their thinking beyond old fixed and mobile concepts. For example, new partnerships with vendors, third parties and public stakeholders can enable innovative business models — with the following options and advantages:
Alcatel-Lucent is a founding partner in the International Telecommunication Union’s Connect the World initiative, with a history of global leadership and partnering in high-growth markets. As part of our Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users, we work closely with service providers to facilitate the key partnerships required to deliver specific voice offerings.
Compelling Services — Targeted to Subscriber Needs
Alcatel-Lucent can help you develop innovative, affordable services for new mobile users that won’t cannibalize your high-end subscriber base. To be widely adopted, these services must be tailored to entry-level subscribers’ daily needs and habits, as well as their budgets. For example, they can offer convenient and affordable micro-payment methods, such as over-the-air micro-vouchers. Or they can provide pioneering new mobile services for communities and businesses which play a key role in customer loyalty.
Below, find several sample services for lower income consumers:
Over-The-Air Prepaid Micro-Vouchers
Subscribers can buy very small credits from street-corner retailers, based purely on what is available. Increments can be as small as a few cents (US). This service helps service providers expand their consumer reach and increase revenues, while cutting scratch card costs in half. This solution has been introduced in the Philippines for two years, and gains widespread acceptance and popularity. For example, Smart registers more than 2 million transactions per day. ($36,000/day).
Banking Services
In high-growth economies, finding access to financial services is not easy, which makes m-banking a significant development opportunity. Globacom, the leading service provider in Nigeria, has launched a service that allows end-users to consult their account and doing banking operation directly from their mobile phones.
Sponsored Calls
By listening to a short advertisement before their call begins, a customer can reduce the cost-per-minute of the call. The reduction is paid for by the advertising sponsor.
The Mobile Handset Cash Wallet
The m-wallet does not require a bank account. In over-the-counter transactions, cash is credited to the handset for later use — or can be sent to a recipient for withdrawal. Globe Telecom (News - Alert) established an m-wallet service in the Philippines, which now processes $10 billion in remittances annually.
 ALCATEL-LUCENT MOBILE VOICE SOLUTIONS ALREADY AT WORK China Mobile
With a total of over 300 million subscribers — 10 million in Shanghai alone — China Mobile needed cost-effective ways to work with low-ARPU customers. They chose the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users because it offers excellent TCO, more capacity to handle traffic growth with reduced OPEX (News - Alert) and significant reductions in power consumption. In addition, the solution is IP-ready for the mid- to long-term.
Reliance
Serving customers in India, Reliance has been using two wireless access technologies to address different user segments and market needs. Alcatel-Lucent was uniquely positioned to provide both technologies cost effectively — with one architecture to reach both urban and rural users. Rural reach was expanded with the Alcatel-Lucent BSC Evolution and Twin TRX, which doubles base station capacity while reducing power consumption by 30 percent. Our CDMA Mod Cell 4.0 BTS provided high capacity that will support plans to double the provider’s subscriber base. And simple upgrades to the core enable lower CAPEX and OPEX, achieving TCO excellence. Alcatel-Lucent was also selected for our proven fast time-to-market.
Globacom
The objective of this Nigerian operator is to build the biggest and best-quality network in Africa. With that in mind, the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice for Low-Income Users solution was chosen for its flexibility and proactive capabilities. It also offers an end-to-end solution that can integrate innovative concepts into challenging physical environments.
Orascom
Operating in Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq and Tunisia — where the population is 460 million but telephone penetration averages only 11.5 percent — Orascom has grown from 6.8 million subscribers in 2003 to 30 million today. The company has an ambitious strategy for subscriber acquisition and regional expansion and has worked with Alcatel-Lucent since 1998. They anticipate continued growth, with the goal of reaching 100 million subscribers by 2010.
 THE ALCATEL-LUCENT ADVANTAGE With the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Voice Solution for Low-Income Users, you get the team you need for cost-effective transformation of your services, networks and businesses — allowing you to achieve profitable business cases that address high-growth markets.
Working with Alcatel-Lucent offers the following key advantages:
TMCnet publishes expert commentary on various telecommunications, IT, call center, CRM and other technology-related topics. Are you an expert in one of these fields, and interested in having your perspective published on a site that gets several million unique visitors each month? Get in touch. Edited by Greg Galitzine |
