Value added mobile broadband services Innovation driven transformation of the ‘smart pipe’

As consumer demand for mobile broadband data soars, data traffic is increasing exponentially. However actual data revenue is growing at a much slower pace. Furthermore, data profitability is significantly lower than voice or messaging. Hence, investors and financial analysts are currently marking down the future valuation of mobile operators' businesses. To counter this trend, operators need new ways of monetizing mobile broadband data while increasing profits. This can be achieved by transforming existing data businesses from unlimited or volume-based models to value-added data offerings. Examples are: demographically segmented and personalized data packages; data bundled-with-Internet-applications; sender-pays content models; and service-based charging. These “value added mobile broadband services” are becoming a new area for service innovation. This paper analyses current market trends and explains how the aggregation of traffic management, data charging, deep packet inspection and content optimization technologies enables this new “smart pipe” innovation. Existing market solutions and examples of already deployed value added data services are provided.