Meeting the OTT Challenge

Meeting the OTT challenge

BICS

Product/Service: BIC’s OTT offering

ENTRY SYNOPSIS: OTT services have been increasing in number and popularity in recent years, presenting a new opportunity for mobile operators to collaborate with these players to launch innovative new services into the marketplace. BICS has been central to helping operators around the world launch new services and enable exciting new business models that take advantage of the strengths of both OTT players and traditional operators to deliver innovative services to the end user.

MAIN ENTRY:

OTT services have been increasing in number and popularity in recent years, presenting a new opportunity for mobile operators to collaborate with these players to launch innovative new services into the marketplace. BICS has been central to helping operators around the world launch new services and enable exciting new business models that take advantage of the strengths of both OTT players and traditional operators to deliver innovative services to the end user.

Taking advantage of its extensive network footprint and existing relationships with major OTT brands, BICS has developed a platform which allows companies, such as social network providers, to seamlessly enable content using featurephones rather than smartphones. Initially utilised in developing markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the initiative has been established in a close collaboration with one of the leading social networks, and local MNOs and MVNOs.

Due to the prevalence of featurephones in these markets, social content is provided using SMS over BICS’ SS7 network, rather than IP-based transit which is used when accessing the content on smartphones. This collaboration means an increased usage of social networks in these markets, while also an increasing demand for data usage, driving SMS usage and eventually creating demand

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

for more advanced services.

Using SMS has proven to successfully engage users of social networks in developing markets. In addition, the SS7 network remains the most reliable and stable way to reach mobile subscribers in these regions. Since the launch of the initiative, BICS and its social network partners have increased user experience by:

• Providing reliable and robust SMS authentication and engagement services • Providing data analytics to optimise the user experience for both the social network users and the MNO/MVNO • Helping operators and social network provider to increase the number of users and to boost revenues • This SMS initiative via SS7 is zero rated, so there is no charge for the end user

The business case is compelling. The MNO/MVNOs experience is an uplift in both SMS usage and data consumption and thereby creates revenue growth. End users benefit from timely, relevant notifications and the social network can engage users and also add new consumers. BICS provides the connectivity, monitoring, reporting and security for all parties involved.

More than 30 MNO/MVNOs and one of the world’s largest social networks are currently participating in the project with a further 70 in discussions. This initiative has added a significant number of new mobile users to the partner social network and increased engagement of the service providers’ customers.

The increased usage in SMS and data generated, means an increase in revenue for the mobile operator and a better end-user experience. In local markets this has also helped to drive down the retail pricing and create packages for SMS and data usage by generating higher usage by the Social Network end-users. Overall, the end-user, the MNO/MVNO, the OTT and the Service Provider (BICS) have all benefited from the initiative.

BICS has been central in developing partnerships between the service provider community and OTT players to drive usage and develop new business models for the entire industry.

Driving the demand for data

In collaboration with a key Silicon Valley partner, BICS is also introducing the concept of sponsored data to MNOs and MVNOs. Data sponsoring was created from a simple concept: Users will consume more data if it is less expensive.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

Data Sponsoring allows content providers and app developers to subsidise the cost of subscribers’ mobile data usage. Instead of the end-user paying for mobile data usage, the MNO/MVNO can introduce the option that a third party contributes to the cost of the usage. In this model, BICS, as the platform and the service provider, as the partner, offers a unique value proposition into the marketplace where OTTs and other app developers and service providers can work with MNO/MVNOs to sponsor data for specific apps.

An initial proof of concept has been launched in Belgium with Proximus starting in July 2015, the first beta test with a large scale operator in Europe. Offering more affordable data at the national level was a priority for Proximus, and considered a good way to generate new revenue to cover the deployment cost of its next-generation LTE network.

By the end of the year, the aim is to develop the service to incorporate international roamers. This is currently a segment of users who are concerned about bill-shock associated with mobile data usage while traveling abroad. Often, this leads to users limiting their normal data usage.

During 2016, BICS, in collaboration with its partner, aims to expand the sponsored data into developing markets to allow subsidised internet access, through mobile networks, to a largely untapped and currently unconnected market segment.

Sponsored data has the potential to benefit: network operators, OTT service providers, app developers and gaming developers in addition to the end users themselves. MNO/MVNOs benefit from being able to charge users a lower price for data usage, OTTs and developers will attract an increase in usage as demand increases and the end customer will gain reduce cost access to applications and services, generating new future revenues for all parties.

These are just two of the examples of how innovative carrier services provider BICS is helping encourage seamless interoperability between all telecoms players. Collaboration is the key to industry growth, and for OTTs, this has delivered an increased demand for data from end-users.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

du Telecom

Product/Service: du View

ENTRY SYNOPSIS: "du View" is a true multi-platform OTT application providing best in class experience and content.

MAIN ENTRY:

"du View" users can enjoy a selection of "free to air" and "premium" TV channels, as well as a wide selection and expanding library of TV series, movies and kids content on the go through their mobile devices (iOS/Android), Gaming devices (Xbox One, Playstation, etc.) and Smart TVs (Samsung, Google, etc.)

"du View" can be accessed, whether you have control over the TV remote or not, wherever you are.

"du View" allows the users to simply navigate and browse our VOD catalog and Live TV programs schedules before logging in, and enjoying the content.

Simply download du View for your preferred platform or device and enjoy.

NOTE! The content in du View is geographically restricted as per compliance with content provider licensing term and conditions.

Supporting documents: http://awards.telecoms.com/files/gravity_forms/73- f52155fa0e99d2674b01ef147b37fd42/2015/07/20150727_du-View_-Award_publicversion.pdf

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

GENBAND

Product/Service: fring Alliance

ENTRY SYNOPSIS: Launched in February 2015, the fring Alliance is a global community designed to help Communication Service Providers (CSPs) beat the independent Over the Top (OTT) challengers at their own game. In addition to delivering the services today’s users crave like video chat and texting, CSPs who join the Alliance leverage their inherent strengths, build community through a federated user directory, and gain ownership in the platform.

MAIN ENTRY:

Describe the product:

For more than a decade, service providers have faced increased competition from OTT challengers like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, and others who have siphoned customers away while building their business on the CSPs’ networks. In fact it’s estimated that in 2014 alone, CSPs lost approximately $14 billion in revenue to social media, IM and VoIP (source: Juniper Research). Faced with this dire situation, CSPs have had to devise new strategies. Many of them have opted for closed, “walled garden”-type strategies which have limited their reach and the effectiveness of their solutions.

Enter the fring Alliance, which gives CSPs an opportunity to re-engage with their customer base and beat the OTTs at their own game. By leveraging fring, GENBAND’s white label OTT solution, the fring Alliance enables CSPs to compete with independent OTTs by offering comparable, more reliable services and simultaneously leverage their core assets. Through intimate network integration, "Carrier OTT" services can deliver a user experience that is vastly superior to what any independent OTT service can provide. In addition, operators can leverage their pre-existing billing relationship with their users and easily bundle new free or premium services with existing service plans.

Origin, when was it envisaged?

In 2013, GENBAND, then a telecommunications service provider which had just come under new leadership, acquired fring, a pioneer in OTT applications, with the goal of empowering its CSP customers to beat the independent OTTs at their own game.

GENBAND re-engineered fring as a white-label OTT solution which enables carriers, MSOs and MVNOs to leverage a telco-grade cloud network and suite of applications to extend their network’s

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

reach and deploy an IP communication and telephony service to consumers and enterprises quickly and with low risk.

fring’s white label clients can further their advantage by creating and leveraging a universal address book by joining the Alliance. This universal user database brings together friends and family across carrier networks while simultaneously maintaining the CSP’s individual subscriber relationships and building a social presence.

How does it help end users and the companies they serve?

The fring Alliance empowers CSPs to offer their customers the best of both worlds. End-users access services such as multi-party video, one-touch photo-sharing, co-browsing, collaboration and more across any network, via any device and on any screen. At the same time, they’re enjoying the convenience of a single phone number and the transparency of a single billing plan.

Meanwhile, the CSPs can develop customized marketing business plans and bundled services to create the most business and brand value. They also have the flexibility to create unique “powered by fring ™” brands and customized features for OTT services with less risk and faster time to market, serving their unique customer base with the most relevant services.

While each solution is unique to the carrier, the option of joining in the Alliance and helping to build and enjoy the benefits of an enormous federated user base is the same for each and every one of them. The shared directory enables each member’s subscribers to reach friends and family across carriers, helping them extend their network reach and gain distinct advantages compared to standalone OTT services.

An additional benefit is that these new services are deployed quickly and without requiring any capital expenditure. Charter members will also become owners in the new company, giving them an additional incentive to participate in the development of the community.

How does the product stand out among others like it?

One of the key differentiators between the fring Alliance and other consortiums that have been put forth is the speed at which the fring Alliance enables time to market. Freed from the need to wait for RCS standards to be fully deployed, CSPs can engage and compete against social, Peer-to-Peer (P2P), and OTT business models today by providing a dually differentiated service that enhances data plan competitiveness.

From a technical standpoint, fring and the fring Alliance are implemented on Kandy, GENBAND’s PaaS solution in the cloud. Kandy leverages the telco grade platforms and technologies in GENBAND as well as the extensive consumer OTT experience from over 7 years of fring service to provide a cloud-based platform that truly offers the best of both worlds: telco grade core telephony, billing systems and network interfaces as well as OTT flexibility for customizing the service behavior and speed for launching new services. All of Kandy’s services are managed and consumed through APIs

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

and SDKs, allowing customers to quickly create applications or embed Kandy capabilities into their existing processes.

Progressive service providers all over the world are leveraging the power of fring to successfully maintain and grow their subscriber bases. France’s Bouygues Telecom is using fring to offer their subscribers cost-effective alternatives to expensive roaming charges when they travel to other countries. Bharti Airtel, one of the world’s largest CSPs is leveraging fring to allow Indian expatriates living abroad to cost-effectively communicate with loved ones back home. Snail, one of the largest online gaming companies in China and MVNO, is using fring to power its award-winning mobile network. PLDT Global Corporation deployed fring to help overseas Filipino migrants and workers to stay connected with their friends and families in the Philippines. And Dodo, one of Australia’s fastest-growing brands owned by the M2 Group selected fring to empower its customers with cost- effective, OTT communications capabilities both locally and internationally.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

Company Name: Netgem

Product/Service: #TelcoTV

ENTRY SYNOPSIS: At Netgem we’ve created the most OTT-friendly platform in the industry. Using HTML5, we are able to rapidly and efficiently onboard the best OTT players such as Netflix, the BBC, Youtube and Sky, for our Telco customers. Our intuitive UI helps viewers navigate across all types of content, linear or on- demand, to find the programmes they love. We offer both free and premium OTT content with ‘pay as you go’ viewer billing so our customers have complete flexibility of what they offer viewers. We also manage all content relationships – even the content marketing. That’s hassle-free OTT, the #TelcoTV way.

MAIN ENTRY:

At Netgem we wanted to truly address the changing content environment and help our customers navigate through to procure and deliver the best content to their viewers with our #TelcoTV. All our market research shows that consumers want simple access to content relevant to them, at the time they want, and free or at a price they want. This is why our approach is to select complementary and quality content; dont need to drawn the client in an OTT app store.

The Netgem ‘TV as a Service’ approach is to find the best content for our customers’ offering and create the best viewer experience possible.

With so many content options emerging in the marketplace, Netgem with its ‘TV as a Service’ manages all content needs on behalf of its customers. Through research we know the kinds of local and international content our customers’ viewers love. We identify the right OTT content partners, quickly onboard them to the service with the widely-used HTML5 format, and integrate them into our platform. We take the hassle away from our customers, and even manage the content marketing schedule. This ensures OTT partners are happy with the viewer messages, the customer is happy, and the right volume and balance of OTT content is communIcated out to the viewer base. We even support content partners at our customer’s Point of Sale for acquisition, ensuring Retail and online consumers are aware of the great, new content partners going live every month.

With the plethora of content now available for viewers, our intuitive UI allows the viewer to easily search and discover content. We categorise the OTT content by genre such as music and news, making it simple and quick to find the content they love. And we have taken both a local and international approach so we have a balance of mainstream and longtail OTT content to cater for a

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

variety of tastes and cultures. And as OTT content is becoming increasingly vital, our service ensures our customers always have the most relevant content to offer viewers.

We specialise in ‘TV as a Service’ for our Telco customers: a rapid and cost-effective way to ensure they achieve their core KPI’s. Success means increased consumer tenure and ARPU, better NPS ratings, reduced churn, limited Capex, Cost of Ownership, and Time to Market.

With 20+ deployments worldwide and 5 Million active viewers, we’re best placed to partner with the most innovative Telco operators and deliver TelcoTV to our customers and their end users win in their market - more customers, more cash.

#TelcoTV is what we do, it's TV the Telco way.

Supporting documents:

http://awards.telecoms.com/files/gravity_forms/73- f52155fa0e99d2674b01ef147b37fd42/2015/08/Netgem-OTT-HOME_apps.pdf

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

Orange

Product/Service: Libon

ENTRY SYNOPSIS: Libon, the free all-in-one communications app for iOS and Android from Orange that offers HD- quality calls, smart instant messaging and personalised visual voicemail for contacts, successfully meets the OTT challenge. Libon is carrier agnostic and can be used by people regardless of which mobile network they're on.

MAIN ENTRY:

Libon is a telco within an app, selling and distributing bundles of minutes and new services like voice over Wi-Fi. Available worldwide on all connected devices (Android, iOS, HTML5), Libon has millions of active users.

Libon is disrupting mobile communication by allowing telcos to:

* distribute their offers globally - as an OTT (without to be linked to the SIM card of their customers) * Sell minutes and services on the network of their competitors * build new corridors of communication (like Diaspora) * create attractive offers in roaming * Avoid the delay involved in integrating with existing IT systems to build new offers. Build it through Libon platform in days. * using web technology to innovate and create new services much faster

Libon helps telcos to reduce the OTT threat – especially the one posed by the new VoIP players such as Viber Out, Viber In, Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook.

Libon users benefit from the quality and privacy protection that only an operator like Orange can offer. While competing messaging apps typically focus on a single feature set such as instant messaging, Libon includes a broad set of features:

The first truly global voice offering

No matter where you are in the world, Libon makes voice communication convenient and accessible for all.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

Reach Me – never miss a call again

Are you at home or in the office and experiencing poor signal on your phone? Or are you travelling on the tube? It doesn’t matter – Reach Me from Libon uses Wi-Fi to allow its customers to place and receive calls as normal using their mobile number. It offers users the peace of mind that they are always reachable and will never miss a call again.

It’s not only in the UK where Libon can benefit users. Travelling abroad? With Libon, people can reduce their roaming charges on calls if they’re connected to Wi-Fi. When asked if they would consider using an app that allowed them to make and receive calls abroad without being charged, 94% of those surveyed said, yes.

This new feature addresses a problem many of us encounter on a regular basis. Libon will go some way towards solving the headache of being out of range of mobile signal for new and existing customers but also the millions affected by mobile dead spots in the UK. As long as you’ve got Wi-Fi connection, Libon will ensure you are always reachable and you can always place a call, no matter what network you’re on.

Calls around the world

‘Libon Out’ feature allows you to make cheap calls around the world to landlines or mobiles via the app’s in-app purchase option Enjoy crystal clear voice quality to connect with the people closest to you.

Free unlimited calls between Libon users

Enjoy free and unlimited crystal clear HD-quality voice calls when calling someone else with the Libon app, wherever you might be on Wi-Fi or 3/4G (operator may apply data charges).

Customized voicemail

If you’re looking for a great visual voicemail solution, Libon is the app for you. View all messages received at a glance and listen to them in any order.

Voice-to-text

And what about the times you’re just too busy to listen to a voicemail? Libon has you covered also. The voice-to-text feature transcribes all voicemails received into text for you to read on the go. You can even have it emailed to you too.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.

Meeting the OTT challenge

A voicemail to impress your friends and work colleagues

The next time a friend calls you and you are not available, how about they get a message greeting that is personal to them? You can be as creative as you like, and it’s a lot of fun. Or what about those important businesses call you missed? The person calling you feels very special when they hear you value their call. It makes a difference.

Open Chat

Libon’s ‘Open Chat’ technology means that sharing texts, audio and media is no longer restricted to a specific app or platform. It’s a dream come true for users facing the hassle of dealing with multiple ‘walled garden’ messaging applications. Libon users can now instant message with any of their contacts no matter what messaging service they use or even if they don’t use any. By removing this barrier, Libon believes that rich messaging has become effortless and much more simple.

Free instant messaging

Libon’s instant messaging allows users to share texts, pictures, audio and video messages as well as locations.

Conversations, not just calls

For every contact, Libon can pull all conversation into one place. View SMS messages, instant messages, calls and voicemails to give you a context when you’re calling.

Please return your completed form to [email protected] by Friday 25th September.