As operators around Europe continue to report stagnant or declining voice revenues, Vodafone has revealed it will be looking closely at methods to capture more revenues from mobile internet services. The company said that top of the list was the development of premium services and micro-billing beyond what has already been launched or announced, such as Vodafone 360.
Vodafone Europe CEO, Michel Combes, believes that additional revenues are needed to continue investment in the data networks, but without simply becoming high-speed dumb pipes that would continue to benefit the main winners in the mobile internet space, such as Google and other big search engines.
According to Combes, ideas that could be considered to boost revenues include content providers paying operators to guarantee their content is carried over the network without disruption, and operators receiving a fee from micro-billing and providing location services. Vodafone is also offering its business customers the chance to pay a premium fee to guarantee a better service.
"This is about unlocking additional value all along the chain and making sure that all the players can see the benefit," said Combes. "Some customers may be ready to pay more for a differentiated quality of service depending on their need."
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Reuters
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