The Future of the Entire OTT Ecosystem at Monetising OTT Services

London (ots/PRNewswire) -

The deal struck in February by Facebook to buy over-the-top (OTT)
messaging service provider WhatsApp for $19 billion was widely
heralded as another nail in the coffin for telecom operators'
traditional messaging revenues. But it is only the beginning of what
is to come. Later the same month, at Mobile World Congress, came a
further significant blow to operators when WhatsApp, currently used
by some 450 million subscribers worldwide, announced that it will be
adding voice capabilities to its offering later this year.

At Monetising OTT Services, taking place in London from 25-27
March 2014, senior representatives from across the entire OTT
ecosystem will discuss strategies for developing new services and
forming partnerships, in order to generate revenues from the growing
OTT market. The Final Agenda is available here:
http://www.monetisingott.com/Brochure.aspx or email
telecoms@iqpc.co.uk.

The need for operators to hit back through their own OTT
strategies-developing their own next-generation network services or
through partnerships-is accelerating, and Chief Marketing Officers
(CMOs) will be at the heart of the battle for customers.

If analyst predictions are accurate, the picture for operators'
core voice and messaging service revenues looks bleak.

As a result, both operators and OTT players are talking up
partnerships. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in his keynote speech at
Mobile World Congress, spoke both of the intention to build OTT
services such as WhatsApp into carrier-grade offerings and the need
for partnerships with operators in order to grow broadband mobile
internet subscriptions.

Full-blown revenue sharing partnerships would see operators
introducing data bundles with free access to OTT voice and messaging
services. The benefits to operators, argue the OTT players, would be
the further spread of broadband mobile subscriptions, in turn opening
up the chance to sell additional services; as a consequence,
operators could accrue greater access revenues from their
long-established networks. In the Philippines, Globe Telecom already
offers OTT voice and messaging services such as Facebook Messenger
and WhatsApp as part of its core data plans.

In Europe, other telecoms operators leading the way have already
taken steps to forge partnerships. German mobile operator E-Plus in
February struck a deal to launch a WhatsApp-branded service in the
country, while Russian mobile operator VimpelCom announced a similar
agreement last December. In the same month, Deutsche Telekom and
Telecom Italia inked partnerships respectively with Twitter and
Amazon to host their apps on mobile devices.

Of course, mobile network operators have much to bring to the
party, including direct billing relationships with their customers,
their network assets and years of delivering quality of service
guarantees. If CMOs can integrate such advantages with the
flexibility, ubiquity and affordability of OTT and social media
services, they will surely have a formula to offset core service
revenue declines and develop new revenue streams.

CONTACT: For more information about Monetising OTT Services taking
place in London from 25-27 March 2014, including the industry leading
speakers and latest agenda, please visit:
http://www.monetisingott.com.

For Press and Marketing enquiries please get in touch with
Francesca Pezzoli, Senior Marketing Manager, IQPC. Email:
telecoms@iqpc.co.uk, Telephone: +44(0)20-7368-9300.

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