Half of APAC cellcos have OTT partnerships

Nearly every Asian mobile operator is interested in pursuing partnerships with OTT players to combat the growing problem of revenue loss, a survey suggests.

The survey, conducted by Alepo ahead of Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2016, shows that just over half of respondents already have working partnership agreements with OTT providers.

On the other hand, nearly two thirds of Asian operators are also directly competing with OTT providers with their own video, messaging or content service.

Respondents indicated that declining voice revenues in the face of the growing popularity of OTT voice services is one of the main challenges operators face today. But revenue loss for OTT providers is higher for SMS than other services.

Asked about the main obstacles to partnering with OTT providers, respondents named an inability or difficulty competing with the growing number of market entrants as the largest challenge, followed by difficulty controlling QoS of OTT services. Complications involved with billing for OTT services came third.

By comparison, a lack of willingness to partner on the part of either the OTT provider and the operator were considered the least significant challenges.

“It’s clear that mobile network operators in Asia Pacific recognize the emerging threat of OTT services on the bottom line and are proactively seeking new strategies and business models to overcome that,” Alepo director of marketing Danielle Elaine Smith said.

“This report indicates that the implementation of those strategies is not limited by an unwillingness to partner by either the operators or the OTT providers, but rather by poor or outdated policy and charging control infrastructure that can’t adapt to meet the new realities of today’s dynamic APAC telecom markets.”