Articles
 In this section we offer a range of articles that we hope will inform, interest and maybe even entertain you!
If you have any comments or questions about any of these articles, or would like to suggest a topic for comment by our editorial team, please let me know.
Getting the Best Price for Pre-Paid Mobile Services
By Robin Burton
Intelligent pricing is a new technique which ensures that operators can get the best price for their services. It ensures that the price offered results in the maximum possible revenue. This article looks at how the concept has developed over time and the results seen from recent deployments.
Setting Roaming Steering Targets
By Robin Burton
Steering of roaming is a vital tool for roaming managers in mobile networks. It helps them to actively manage their relationships with roaming partners; resulting in lower costs and higher profitability. Roaming managers therefore try to maximise its effectiveness. Some look for 100% “accuracy”. This article examines the trade-offs between “accuracy”, roamer experience and roaming partner relations. Specifically it sets out to answer the question of how to set a steering target to maximise overall profitability.
Click here for the full article
Be More Than A Bit Pipe
By Robin Burton
Mobile operator revenues and profits are increasingly under pressure. They are in danger of becoming mere suppliers of a "commodity" with all of the attendant problems of poor customer loyalty, low prices and low profits. This article argues that the answer lies in the use of well targeted network based applications. These, argues the author, can be the basis of a giving the subscriber real reasons for preferring a particular operator. They can build loyalty and help to improve profits. Most marketers believe that we are now living in what might be termed “The Third Age” of branding. In the first half of the 20th Century we were in what might be termed the “Functional” age. The number of competitors was fewer and the concern was to re-assure customers that they were buying a special function or that they were getting the “genuine” article. The second half of the 20th Century saw the development of the “Emotional” age when customers were encouraged to “identify” with particular brands. This age saw the rise of celebrity endorsements as a key strategy. Since then the “Conceptual /Intellectual /Philosophical” Age has held sway. This includes brand strategies that communicate certain values such as “fair-trade” or “environmentally friendly.”
However many of these strategies are too narrow in base to suit many mobile communication companies. A different approach is needed.....
Network Fraud: Storm Warning
By Robin Burton
Mobile phone networks face rising levels of fraud and network hacking. Various developments in the industry mean that it is now easier than ever for fraudsters to gain access to the network. Robin Burton argues that, unless operators implement on-line, real-time and automatic systems to identify and eliminate new and evolving forms of fraud and network attack, the consequences may be very serious.
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