Raja Simhan T.E.

SmartTrust's mobile device management promises to enhance the operator, subscriber relationship.

Nearly 200 global mobile networks rely on the Swedish SmartTrust to manage subscribers, their handsets and access to mobile services. The company allows mobile operators to build solutions that meet the challenges in today's markets. Its customers include Vodafone, O2 UK and India's Bharti Airtel.

Mobile Device Management for hardware and software also helps operators track mobile devices and centrally apply security and other policies. SmartTrust, one of the leaders in this technology, is fast catching up in India. In an interview to eWorld, the company's communications manager, Tim Deluca Smith shares his views on this technology. Excerpts:

What is Mobile Device Management (MDM)?

MDM is one of the most exciting areas of mobile telecommunications at the moment. The relationship between operator and consumer is shifting and the pace of technological development is increasing all the time. What this means is that mobile operators need a means of extending their reach and controlling how customers use their mobiles and access services.

This is achieved through device-aware over-the-air (OTA) platforms that allow commands and updates to be sent remotely to the handset. Although dubbed Mobile Device Management, it is perhaps fairer to describe the process as Mobile Subscriber Management.

Could you give an example of one such service?

Services such as MMS, WAP and GPRS require certain settings on the handset. Any error in the configuration — or if the configuration does not exist in the first place — the service fails. In such cases, the operator loses revenue and the customer loses faith in the service.

Today, automatic device detection and configuration provides the operator the means to remotely identify individual devices types and their capabilities as they become active on the network.

This, in turn, makes it possible to retrieve and send correct settings to a device over-the-air and removes the need for end-users to configure their own handsets.

Where does India stand in the MDM space?

India, alongside China and parts of Latin America, offers enormous mobile growth potential. By the end of this year we would imagine seeing mobile penetration reaching nearly 9 per cent with over 100 million subscribers. MDM becomes an increasingly pertinent issue in this scenario where mobile service providers are now shifting focus from increasing the subscriber base to managing and increasing ARPUs (average revenue per user).

Could you elaborate on the kind of growth foreseen?

Today the average Indian contributes approximately $11 per month — the majority of this on low-margin voice services and SMS (SMS usage is amongst the highest in the world). The need is clearly visible within the industry to raise the profile of data services to the next level (above basic text messaging and into content consumption). We believe that MDM platforms will play a key role in making high-end services and content easily accessible to the Indian subscriber, thus helping to boost ARPUs.

In India where did MDM come from?

Just a few years ago, a mobile subscription was a fairly static entity. Once a consumer had purchased a phone/SIM card and could make calls there was little interaction between him and the operator.

However, today the complexity of both mobile handsets and mobile services has led to the need for closer interaction between operator and customer and the ability to remotely manage the way handsets work and access services. This is particularly so in the case of data services. The Indian market for data services has progressed from astrology, Bollywood, cricket, dating to music, video and gaming. However, these often rely on technologies such as GPRS and WAP to make the connection.

In a recent survey of nearly 7,000 worldwide mobile consumers (SmartTrust Mobile Trends Guide 2005/06) figures for the awareness and use of such technologies in India were amongst the lowest in the world. While it can be appreciated that the penetration of such feature rich handsets is not as pervasive as other markets, the ratio between users who had the functionality and those who actually used it (benefited from it) remains low. Only 13 per cent of all Indian subscribers had ever made a GPRS connection and even fewer (7 per cent) were familiar with WAP. This is the direct fallout of the enduring issue of device configuration, which is when the issue of MDM came into prominence.

What can MDM assure?

Operators could be sure that 100 per cent of their handset fleet — no matter what their origin — were correctly configured. As devices become more complex and more costly to replace, both carriers and vendors are already looking beyond this issue to the larger issue of updating firmware on the terminal.

How big is the MDM market?

According to Strategy Analytics nearly five million handsets were subject to a firmware recall last year at a cost of $145 per unit. At present, 7 per cent of handsets have a problem that requires customer care interaction. By 2010, MDM technologies will provide operators with a combined annual saving in customer-care costs of nearly $1.5 billion.

What is the benefit for operators?

Handsets that are left un-configured are usually limited to voice/SMS only. After one failed attempt to send an MMS or connect to a WAP service, the chance of the user trying again is severely cut. Ensuring that the handset is set to access the services it was designed for is the first step towards increasing data service usage on a mass-market scale.Handsets that develop a fault or are hit by a virus may not be as productive as they could be. The ability to diagnose a fault and repair it OTA ensures continued use of high-value services and reduces the cost of product recalls or service.

raja@thehindu.co.in

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