Premium Mobile Services: The price and package isn’t right

December 02, 2004 - London

80% of mobile users are still not buying premium mobile services, according to a recent UK survey commissioned by Highdeal*, leading provider of pricing, rating and settlement solutions. The ICM survey conducted in November 2004 suggests UK operators have failed to convince mobile users to buy additional premium services.

Although operators are offering increasing numbers of new services (e.g. video telephony, MMS, mobile email), the research indicates there is still low demand for these services. In fact, the majority of the 20% willing to purchase premium services were only prepared to spend an additional 5 pounds per month.   However, there is encouraging uptake among younger mobile users (16 - 24yrs), with a third showing an increased willingness to spend as much as 10% more for premium services.

The findings raise questions about how premium services are marketed. Isabelle Roussin, VP Marketing & Solutions, Highdeal said: “Telecoms is fast evolving into a retail style industry - think Fast Moving Communications Goods, if you like. It’s not about what you sell; but how and who you sell it to and really knowing your customers’ buying attitudes in order to build refined pricing models and accurate segmented customer buying profiles - this is not currently a widespread practice in telecoms.“

Roussin continues, “Operators don’t hold centralised customer life cycle information because this data is being fragmented in legacy silo systems. So they don’t know their customers’ buying behaviour well enough to correctly price and develop customised bundled services. These new services are not only many and varied but are also consumed in a number of different ways, and this needs to be reflected in personalised pricing structures. This is where rating is integral in determining accurate pricing for any given service and user offers. More over, rating allows a new way for charges to be set for interconnect roaming data, which is advantageous for the customer. We won’t see significant changes in the 80% until these systems are sorted out.“

• About ICM

  ICM is a full-service consultancy that specialises in behavioural & opinion research and analysis for telecoms sector clients. ICM has a wide range of experience in all mainstream research techniques - both quantitative and qualitative. http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/specialist_areas/telecoms.asp

  * The survey was conducted by ICM in November 2004. 1042 people (16-65 yrs+) were polled from varying social classes throughout the UK

• About Highdeal

  Highdeal is the world's leading provider of service Pricing & Rating solutions. We provide the necessary agility to ensure the profitability of fast-evolving business models with both customers and partners. Highdeal Transactive^® is a modular software solution that monetizes business transactions in real-time. Companies rely on Highdeal to solve their billing problems in service industries such as telecommunications, media and entertainment, technology, transportation and logistics, and financial services. For more information, visit www.highdeal.com.