As a central part of all our lifestyles, mobile devices have transformed our digital experiences and have become an attachment most of us can’t live without. The evolution has been fast and dramatic, from a basic phone for texting and talking to a smart device enabling multiple touchpoints to multiple services and transactions built for the information generation.

Today, talk and text have become a commodity and, after many years, operators have recognized that in order to compete they need to roll out the types of Rich Communication Suite (RCS) or advanced communication services. These services are craved by society as a means to deliver enhanced experiences to customers, beyond voice and SMS functionalities; however, operators have been left behind after over the top (OTT) services revolutionized the playing field. Operators now need to step up their game and find unique use cases to build demand and challenge the new status quo.

The Evolution of RCS

It was almost 10 years ago that the GSMA launched the industry initiative RCS to enhance communications by adding instant messaging, chat functions, live video, and photo sharing functionalities across any device, with anyone, and on any network. The intention was that mobile users would be able to have group chats and calls, or share content and location in real time, with the aim that this functionality would provide a richer and more consistent user experience.

With their slow adoption of RCS or other similar rich services, operators lost their edge to the OTT service providers and, as of October 2016 only 49 carriers worldwide had launched apps which were deemed RCS ready. While RCS was intended to be a cross carrier initiative, it has proved lengthy and difficult to launch globally, meaning the industry has been disrupted by OTT players taking the market by storm. With their quick to market apps, OTTs promised just what the industry had hoped for with RCS and consumers were swift to respond. However, the one major hurdle these OTT players haven’t been able to completely overcome yet that which RCS could – that is, for communications to be able to take place between users regardless of device, application, or network. RCS could bring truly ubiquitous communication.

Defining A Mobile Industry Movement

This was not the last we heard of RCS. Last year, those committed to the initiative started making headlines again, especially Google who announced they were throwing their hat into the RCS ring. The industry was taken aback – what would this mean to operators and how might this impact the future of RCS?

While there may still be some skeptics, this move by Google helped to reignite the perceived value and future of RCS. This year, the GSMA announced its newly renamed “Advanced Communications” initiative, as the next iteration of RCS and part of its “Universal Profile,” released in late 2016 to standardize messaging services across operators and make it open, consistent and globally interoperable across devices. The goal of this global standard is to simplify product development for operators, as they seek to deploy the Advanced Communications now demanded by consumers. By unifying these standards, operators can succeed in meeting the high quality experiences of separate messaging platforms, while solving the issue of cross-platform communications. According to the GSMA, ten of the world’s largest manufacturers have already committed to the Universal Profile.

An Operator’s Take on RCS

So where do operators go from here in the changing RCS environment? They need to begin the transition to adopting the global Universal Profile, while maintaining a smooth, rapid, and cost-effective transition that results in expanded services for their users. It is critical that operators look for new ways to monetize their networks throughout the transition. Operators need to find ways to counter the impact on their business and revenue streams with compelling RCS offerings that meet the demand of the industry.

This brings us to Messaging as a Platform (MaaP), which stems from RCS and provides operators with the opportunity to monetize messaging by opening up access to more content across the domain. MaaP creates a new hybrid model, in which others, for example app developers and enterprises, can build applications to send and receive messages, offering users a more comfortable and efficient way to interact and enabling new application-to-person (A2P) use cases. It will also interwork with legacy and IP messaging services, as communication services transition, and will be driven by the GSMA, which will launch in quarter two 2017 and includes APIs, plug-in integration, and improved authentication and app security.

OTT services can, as an example, can connect with the RCS platform through an API and still be used to engage with a user if they’re connected. After all, if users want to use a particular messaging platform, they’ll want operators to help them enjoy the experience on that platform, and RCS can have a role in optimising that by connecting with that app and making sure they get the notification.

OTT or Self-controlled?

With the launch of the Universal Profile, we see the first critical step forward for the mobile industry to truly move into RCS; however, the next steps are up to the operator to decide how to implement. First, they must determine whether to partner with OTT hosted services or self-controlled RCS infrastructure. Either way, they must primarily understand their market and customer, their demands, and evaluate their goals for implementation.

For those considering partner models, operators should understand the potential disadvantages, such as the possibility of losing market differentiation, control in the IP-based messaging service, and consumer experience (due to the standard solution), or potential loss of data mining capabilities.

An alternative to the partner solution is to maintain control over their own RCS infrastructure with outside vendors. The benefit of this option is that the operator has a greater ability to leverage their assets or monetize their data as a secondary revenue stream. Operators can deploy either network and cloud-based solutions based on one that fits their requirements. Furthermore, by moving messaging traffic from circuit switched to cost-effective IP networks, operators can lower their total cost of operation, saving them money while proving themselves as global players in the changing RCS environment.

By embracing RCS technology and partnering with the right third party providers, operators can adopt a full range of RCS solutions with simplified technical implementation for their core messaging services and deployment. While the RCS age was a slow burner, it is undergoing a transformation and focus for operators to disrupt the disrupters – and provide their customers with a superior user experience across any device and any network.

 

Jim Saunders is EVP of Digital Communications at Xura, a digital services solutions company.