Service for travellers to and within the US and expatriates represents innovative offering. Targeting niche customer segments to boost revenue. Co-sponsored feature: Sprint
To expand and deepen their relationships with customers, service providers around the world must always be on the lookout for new and innovative offerings. These offerings, when tailored to specific customer needs and branded by their familiar telecommunications provider, can increase customer loyalty and position a provider as a responsive, innovative, customer-focused market leader.
Wireless services, particularly those focused on data, are well suited to this type of expanded service offering. Numerous companies, both service providers and others, have taken this approach in recent years, operating as MVNOs to extend their reach to new customers and solidify and enhance their relationships with existing customers.
However, the opportunities have become limited for MVNOs focusing on traditional services. Building a large-scale MVNO venture is a costly proposition, both in terms of initial investment and ongoing operations. The challenge is multiplied when a company tries to reach beyond its usual borders and offer service in other nations. Language and cultural differences complicate the tasks of selling, servicing and billing.
One answer lies in addressing niche market segments, through innovative and convenient service offerings such as a service that enables customers to continue to use your company as their main provider, even as they travel abroad in areas where you have not traditionally offered service.
Travel may be rewarding, but it can become an ordeal when the traveller is trying to stay connected to their home office or country. Connectivity is rarely as reliable as a traveller would like it to be. Every business traveller who has ever tried to upload or download a large presentation from his or her hotel room, or laboured valiantly to connect to the corporate network to access important emails, has a story to tell about the frustrations of doing business in unfamiliar territory.
These are the kinds of people who would love to work with a familiar provider, someone they trust in their home country.
Expatriates, who are likely to be in a foreign country for a longer period than a business traveller, may be able to make more effective arrangements, since they have the opportunity to put down roots and work with better-established networking providers. Still, they likely retain an affinity to the service provider they work with on a regular basis and with which they are most comfortable.
These two market segments – travellers (especially business travellers) and expatriates – may not be a large market, but a service that specifically reaches out to them is an innovation. It represents a way for a provider to extend its reach, tighten the bonds of customer loyalty and generate revenue.
Mobile broadband on demand
That is what drove Sprint, as a wireless innovator known for its highly reliable US wireless networks, to bring to market in the US Mobile Broadband On Demand. This is the first wholesale prepaid data solution available exclusively for Sprint Wholesale partners. It enables them to craft a customer offering that delivers the advantages of mobile broadband in an easy-to-use way. It provides a good value for users (particularly when compared with hotel or other wireless access rates) and offers the partner significant revenue potential.
Mobile Broadband On Demand is offered as a standalone product or as a package with back office services. The Sprint Wholesale partner makes available to its customers a partner-branded, plug-and-play data card. For the user, it feels like the partner’s service, even though the partner is thousands of miles away while the user leverages the Sprint 3G network virtually anywhere in the US.
This prepaid data product is a joint offering from Sprint and its partner Telespree, a leading provider of on-device self-service solutions. With it, Sprint Wholesale partner companies can leverage their strong brand presence and distribution channels to tap into a niche market for mobile broadband.
All the partner needs to do is sell the data card – from a kiosk, off a shelf, or even from a vending machine – and the user configures the service, selects the service plan that best fits their needs, and begins using the Sprint network for high-speed, reliable access to the internet and their corporate network. Usage plans range from a half-day to a full day, a week, or a month. There is also a by-the-megabyte plan for users who prefer that.
Mobile Broadband On Demand offers simple, easy-to-use over-the-air activation, allowing users to be connected for as long as they are travelling or working in the U.S. It is the ideal solution for harried travellers or expatriates looking for connectivity and the comfort of a familiar brand.
Exciting opportunity
As Dan Dooley, president of Sprint Wholesale Solutions, pointed out, “This represents one of the most exciting prepaid mobile broadband opportunities today. Now Sprint Wholesale partner companies with strong brand presence and distribution can expand the appeal of mobile broadband with economical, pay-as-you- go plans as well as innovative bundled solutions designed to reach new markets and customers.”
The Mobile Broadband On Demand solution is customisable, with each Sprint partner able to craft their own specific service offering and establish pricing. The solution can be integrated into existing partner back-end systems, or operate as a turnkey solution, including billing and logistics.
Because the Mobile Broadband On Demand service is so customisable, all prepaid data plans, payment methods, branding and other options are tailored to the business requirements and preferences of the Sprint Wholesale partner. Even customer support is appropriately branded. With the simple over-the-air activation, the need for support is limited, but if it is needed, the entire support structure – no matter how far along the chain a customer goes – is branded as the Sprint Wholesale partner’s. That way, the user continues to feel as if he or she is working with their familiar provider.
Launching service for users
The first step toward launching a Mobile Broadband On Demand service is for the provider to become a Sprint Wholesale partner, if they aren’t already. Then the provider works with Sprint and Telespree to configure cards to the platform and determine retail plans and pricing. The provider works with a fulfilment vendor to provide the branded data cards. The entire process, from agreement through to service launch, takes three to six months. During that time, while card configurations and pricing plans are being formulated, the provider can work on its own internal plans for marketing the service to its travelling and expatriate customer base.
With a relatively modest investment, the Sprint Wholesale partner can quickly begin offering its branded mobile broadband service throughout the US, leveraging the vast and reliable Sprint 3G network. Speaking about Mobile Broadband On Demand at the time of the service’s launch earlier this year, Mark Lowenstein, managing director of consulting firm Mobile Ecosystem, observed, “There is a need for more flexible business models and pricing structures as we move into the next phase of mobile broadband consumer adoption, which will include new market segments and myriad devices. This is among the first tools on the market that accommodates the requirements of mobile operators, who, in addition to supporting consumers and enterprises, are also building a robust wholesale business.”
Sprint has been offering Mobile Broadband On Demand in the US for several months, and has now extended the offering to service providers around the world. This solution gives providers the opportunity to establish a targeted and innovative service to their globe-hopping customers.
Mobile Broadband On Demand continues the Sprint tradition of wireless innovation. Through the Sprint Wholesale partner programme, Sprint and the partner can offer to any traveller to the US, from anywhere in the world, the opportunity to take advantage of the nationwide 3G network, wherever they travel and work within the US. GTB
The explosion of data
The ever-surging growth in data usage is key to international service providers’ need to innovate in order to increase revenue. In the face of plummeting revenue-per-bit, providers must boost revenue through new services even as they strive to reduce their own transport costs.
Not so long ago, the average wireless user – in a voice-centric world – consumed only about 30 megabytes of data per month. Today, thanks largely to the skyrocketing popularity of smartphones, the average usage is up to one gigabyte (GB) per month. And as video comes to dominate the data landscape, with mobile TV, peer-to-peer video transfers, and an increasing preference for the visual over the written word, industry experts predict that average monthly usage will climb to 14GB per month within a few years.
While video may be the most notable driver of increased usage, other applications also contribute significantly. Multiplayer gaming, music downloads, web browsing, and photo sharing generate large amounts of mobile data, and interest continues to grow in all of these applications.
In addition, emerging applications such as mobile cloud computing, the introduction of rich mobile computing devices, and a fertile ecosystem of applications, content, and devices will only exacerbate the flood of data.
Getting connected
Once users buy the Sprint Wholesale partner-branded data card, they plug the card into a portable computer and simply click on the Connection Manager icon on the desktop.
That allows users to set up their account and select the prepaid data plan they prefer. The most common options for Sprint Wholesale partners are half a day, a single day, a week or a month. There is also a pay-by-the-megabyte option, suited to less data-intensive users. With the megabyte option, it is also very easy to add to the plan, since an on-screen usage meter reminds the user how quickly they are consuming their prepaid usage.
The user then pays with a credit card, prepaid wireless card, or other optional method and automatically activates the card. There is little need for customer support.
About Sprint Wholesale
Sprint Wholesale Solutions provides customised wireless, M2M, wireline and VOIP services to hundreds of partners worldwide, who in turn serve millions of end-user customers. By reselling our leading-edge, world class assets in white-label form, including award-winning IP and 3G networks and the first 4G network available from a national carrier, Sprint has become a preferred provider of wholesale telecommunications solutions for businesses around the world. Sprint Wholesale thrives on helping our partners bring their unique ideas to life.