A new report released by GSMA highlighted strong interest among mobile users in new advanced mobile operator-led messaging services such as pre-calling, instant messaging, live video and real-time photo or file sharing, which are enabled by Rich Communications Services (RCS) and voice over LTE (VoLTE) and work natively on any device and network without the need to download an app. The report ‘The Future of Mobile Communications,’ showed that Operator-led services were preferred to existing popular internet-based messaging services, with 79 per cent of people surveyed saying such a service would be relevant to them and 89 per cent regarding them as unique.
The research, which was commissioned by the GSMA and conducted by research firm Context Consulting, surveyed 4,045 participants from China, India, Spain and the United States reports that consumers are looking for a single, feature-rich communications service they can use to reach all of their contacts, innovative new features such as pre-calling and specific attributes such as support for one-to-one chat and the ability to use the same voice calling service over mobile networks and Wi-Fi networks.
The report highlights that a mobile operator, although unlikely to charge consumers directly for IP-based communications services, could still see substantial financial benefits of up to US$5 billion between 2015 and 2020 (in developed markets), according to GSMA Intelligence figures. The enterprise market is predicted to be the main driver for this increase, as well as new product and service innovations, such as conversational commerce which enables users to complete transactions within the messaging service.
There are currently 456 LTE networks worldwide, 48 of which support VoLTE, and 47 operators in 34 countries have launched RCS services to date.