News
White label conferencing specialist says telcos can differentiate from OTTs on customer service, enabling native support on devices.
Carriers would do well to roll out wholesale unified communications (UC) services, rather than sell them only through the enterprise channel, advised a panel of experts on day one of Carriers World in London on Wednesday.
"Unified communications is something you need to be thinking about as a wholesaler," said David James, principal analyst at Ovum.
He acknowledged there might be some concern about an operator’s wholesale division competing with its enterprise arm, but he insisted that provided there is "a clear delineation between who is a wholesale customer and who is an enterprise customer" within the carrier, then wholesale UC services "allow you to reach new markets and go to market in new ways."
Not surprisingly, white label conferencing solutions provider PGi sees wholesale unified communications as a strategic imperative for telcos as a means of defending themselves against Web-based players.
"There is growing demand for cloud-based unified communications and collaboration. Your customers are going to be buying it; the question is, from whom?" said Frank Paterno, senior director, global carriers, at PGi.
Carriers have certain advantages over OTT players, he explained, such as their pedigree when it comes to providing customer support. Conversely, OTTs "will point you towards FAQs, and self-service."
Paterno said that the rise of VoLTE means that carriers are also better-placed than OTTs when it comes to enabling native support for unified communications on mobile devices.
"OTTs are a step removed from that," he said.
"Mobile is the key to unlocking unified communications," added Ian Cooper, head of communication products at Telefonica UK.
The industry is "at a genuine inflection point," he said, adding that 85% of employees still have a desk phone, but 50% of work calls are conducted over mobile.
Paterno warned that if telcos don’t seize the wholesale UC opportunity, others will.
"Voice conferencing used to be a side business; now it has evolved into Web conferencing, collaboration, and unified communications…It has taken centre stage for carriers," Paterno said. "If you lose your conferencing business to Microsoft or Cisco, you’re going to lose a whole lot more of your business later on."
