Research carried out by Alcatel-Lucent reveals that consumers are increasingly looking to service providers to offer them high-definition voice and video calling services over LTE and WiFi.
In a study of 5 500 smartphone owners in the US, the UK, Japan and Brazil, Alcatel-Lucent also identified how new technologies such as wearables, connected homes and cars, and the Internet of Things will change the way they use services and interact with their mobile devices in the future.
Service providers are seeing voice and messaging service revenues erode in the face of competition from a plethora of companies delivering smartphone apps. To counteract this trend and allow service providers to grow their business with innovative revenue-generating offers, Alcatel-Lucent, in collaboration with research-based consultancy, Penn Schoen Berland, has identified the new services that smartphone users want, and how they expect to use and pay for them in a set of reports titled 5 500 Smartphone Consumers can’t be Wrong: 7 New Mobile Service Opportunities.
In the seven reports, Alcatel-Lucent investigates future demand growth for voice, messaging, video calling and upcoming communication service innovations for consumers and connected ’things’, including wearables and connected cars.
The reports also address new ways for enterprises to engage with their smartphone-owning customers. Providing clear recommendations and a breakdown of demographics, service providers can use the information to differentiate their offers, explore ways to tailor services to various customer segments, and in turn, grow their revenue.
Key findings from the research include:
* More than 30% of US consumers expect that the ability to experience VoLTE-enabled high-definition voice will lead them to make more or longer calls.
* Around half of consumers surveyed in the US and UK and 80% of those surveyed in Brazil expect to use video calling more over the next five years.
* More than 60% of smartphone consumers in US, UK and Brazil are interested in using video calls to interact with enterprises.
* Between 78% and 97% of all respondents says they will use WiFi calling if offered by their service provider. Addressing areas of poor coverage is the primary motivator in the US, the UK and Brazil while saving minutes in the voice plan is the main driver in Japan.
* More than 60% of US, UK and Japanese smartphone consumers are willing to pay for machine-triggered communication services, with that percentage rising even higher in Brazil.
Josh Aroner, vice-president, IP Platforms, Alcatel-Lucent, says: “Smartphone owners today know what they want in terms of apps and services and this report helps service providers cut through the clutter, identify opportunities for differentiation from over-the-top players, and recognize real business benefits.”