Feature Report: What OTT Tactics Will Help Carriers Combat Their Competition? Over the span of five years, smartphones, mobile broadband and the ongoing transition to all-IP networks has transformed the mobile industry. While revenues have grown across every sector in the market, startups are increasingly eating into network operators’ legacy revenue streams. Wildly popular over-the-top (OTT) players are disrupting the user experience on mobile and impacting the bottom lines of virtually every established company in the space.Social messaging apps have taken an especially large toll. Popular messaging services like WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Voice and Facebook Chat cost mobile network operators $13.9 billion in lost messaging revenue last year, according to a new report from analyst firm Ovum. Subscribers are flocking to these new services in droves. By circumventing carrier-specific services like text messaging, customers are cutting costs by making more efficient use of their data plans. OTT voice and video providers like Skype and FaceTime put an even greater demand on networks and pose an increasingly challenging environment for carriers. As they move slowly down the path to LTE Advanced, Multimedia Telephony Service and Supplementary Services and Rich Communication Suite, carriers need to address the demands of their users today with plans for the near and long term. There is a window of opportunity for carriers to innovate internally, re-think business models and embrace the services and reach that consumers enjoy on these OTT services. But it is closing. This feature report is sponsored by Metaswitch Networks.
