MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Ovum's report on growing revenues from the mobile Internet is now published. The focus of much of our recent research has been on mobile broadband and fast mobile Internet access via laptop and a USB modem -or dongle, as they are known. This is, of course, at the core of mobile operator strategies right now as operators seek to drive revenue growth from flat-rate (or nearly flat-rate) access packages.

However, the fate of the ISPs, which took this approach for the Internet model several years earlier has triggered early warning signals for mobile operators, which are very aware that they need to find new revenue sources to future-proof their businesses once access becomes commoditised. The report focuses on the segmentation of Internet-based content and services on the handset (via a cellular connection, essentially, HSPA) and which business models will prevail.

Michele Mackenzie, Service Manager and Practice Leader, said, "Operators don't have to be dumb pipes, unless they are stupid." The big question is whether or not mobile operators will end up being commodity mobile broadband ISPs, the dreaded 'dumb pipes' scenario. "The short answer is that they do not have to and there are ways to avoid this,” said Mackenzie based in London.

Mobile operators have unique resources to draw on that fixed broadband ISPs of the time did not, namely in-depth information about their customers and unique network-based assets to leverage, such as location. Operators are in a position to be intelligent facilitators, or 'smart pipes' as it is often called, meaning they can act as a platform and channel in the value chain for supporting third-party content and other services while still maintaining a position as a core provider of anywhere broadband access and key communications services. This is not such a terrible place to be.

Championing communications services may strike many operators as a retrograde, back-to-basics strategy, but we think there is merit in this. “I also think there is a lot of potential in utility type services that enhance the core proposition or add value in other ways besides direct revenue terms. An example here could be applications that enable people to manage their contacts and digital identity better in an environment where these are proliferating, driven by factors like social networking”, added Michele Mackenzie.