A recent study by independent analyst firm Ovum showed that one billion users will turn to their mobile devices as their only means to access the Internet. These users account for 28 per cent of all mobile broadband users globally or 13 per cent of the world's population in five years' time. The Asia-Pacific will dominate the mobile-only broadband market, with users forecast to grow from 119.1 million in 2011 to 518.4 million.
These statistics spell market opportunities for mobile operators and service providers, particularly in the area of data services. Openwave Systems, a global software solutions provider, is helping mobile operators in the region for an industry trend they call the "data tsunami".
"The Asia Pacific region is a key growth market for our industry, and operators here are eager to monetize this demand for mobile data from a growing range of smarter devices," said John Giere, senior vice president, Products and Marketing, Openwave.
With its solutions for context-aware mediation and messaging, Openwave said it generates approximately 25% to 30% of quarterly revenue from Asia. Among its publicized clients in the region include Australia's Telstra, Malaysia's Maxis, Taiwan Mobile, and Japan's Softbank and KDDI.
In particular, Openwave is helping regional mobile operators take advantage of opportunities in the area of video services brought about by the proliferation of 2.5G/3G networks around the world, particularly in APAC, and the rollout of LTE networks in some markets.
"With more powerful mobile handsets and larger screens, as well as increased network speed, it is expected that video will become a significant portion of all mobile traffic," said Giere in an e-mail correspondence with Computerworld Philippines. He cited the Cisco Visual Networking Index, which forecasts that over 60% of mobile data will be video by 2014.
In the Philippines, Openwave said it is talking to mobile operators to help them enhance their customer's experience with them and generate new revenue streams through media optimization and analytics solutions.
The company said its suite of traffic mediation products can help mobile service providers manage the "mobile data tsunami" by efficiently optimizing their networks. The solutions are capable of understanding how data traffic coming from diverse devices and networks runs through the networks, and applying real-time mediation services for better network management.
Despite the demand for data coming from mobile devices, mobile operators are still challenged as to how to boost their bottom line.
"The increase in traffic and the competitive pressure to keep data plans flat are squeezing service providers' margins in Philippines and across the globe," said Giere. "The small 13% of mobile subscribers that use smartphones are actually responsible for 65% of the mobile traffic." He added that average traffic per user (ATPU) has increased eight-fold from the present level because of the smartphone's capabilities to go online and access data.
In this case, Openwave is positioning its business intelligence analytics solutions to help operators understand user behavior and the corresponding effect on average revenue per user (ARPU). Using this information, operators can take steps to better manage the network to make customers happy and retain them.
But the bottom line is still important, added Giere, as operators try to bring in more revenues from other sources since revenues from voice services continue to decline.
"In order to manage the unprecedented growth in data, and more importantly, to profit from it, the mobile industry needs to develop sophisticated ways to mediate all the different pieces of data within the mobile ecosystem," he said. For this, Openwave is offering its mediation solutions which can analyze aggregate data activity and browsing history of users -- data which can be shared with operators' strategic partners such as advertisers, publishers and applications providers.
Openwave said it is in discussions with Philippine telco operators but could not divulge further information.