Jordan’s mobile market may encounter head-on competition between GPRS-based push-to-talk services (PTT) and iDEN services. The likely rivalry between iDEN operator Generation Telecom and GSM providers Fastlink and MobileCom has been analyzed by IDC.
According to corporation, while it might be tempting for the GPRS-based PTT providers to seek to compete with NewGen's iDEN service head-on by targeting the vertical sectors with a high degree of PTT needs, such as the current 8,000 or so users of private trunking networks, closer analysis of the needs of these vertical sectors, and the underlying PTT technologies, indicates that positioning the GPRS-based PTT service for these vertical sectors might not be the best market entry strategy for the GSM operators.
Jordan’s mobile providers Fastlink and MobileCom have both announced plans to launch carrier-based Push-to-Talk (PTT) services over GPRS during early 2004. Simultaneously, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) has awarded a digital radio trunking license to NewGen, part owned by Jordanian and Saudi investors. The company, which is set to launch in 2004, will use iDEN PTT technology from Motorola to cater to specific vertical business sectors in Jordan.
Thus by mid-2004 Jordan could see competition between NewGen, a new entrant in the mobile voice market, and the two GSM incumbents. But the marketing strategy chosen by each player is likely to determine whether the rivalry between these two seemingly competing technologies, GPRS-based PTT and iDEN PTT, will result in a head-on collision in the market, or whether they will steer clear of each other by focusing on differing niche markets.
NewGen is studying the possible applications it could provide to several vertical sectors, including tourism, trade, finance, insurance, real estate, construction, manufacturing, and transportation, while also assessing its options with the consumer market, including residential customers and students. According to NewGen estimates, there are about 80 private trunk networks in Jordan, providing PTT services to roughly 8,000 users.
Although all three operators have yet to announce their intended market entry strategy, IDC believes that there are parallels between the carrier-based PTT services being planned in Jordan, and the current rush to launch PTT services in the United States by mobile operators wishing to compete with the US incumbent iDEN operator, Nextel.
As the US market has shown, attracting key vertical sectors is not only dependent on the instant connectivity offered by PTT services, but also on the service provider's ability to integrate its services into the core business processes of its customer base. Very often, these processes are centered on mission-critical field force applications and are vertical in nature. NewGen will have these vertical sectors as its primary focus, and thus is likely to meet the specific needs of these niche customers with its iDEN technology more than the larger GPRS-based PTT providers can.
The usability of competing GPRS-based PTT services, including delay in session initiation and latency in transmission, will play a key role in deciding their success, especially when it comes to churning key vertical sectors. Because GPRS-based PTT is still very new worldwide, these performance metrics will be a moving bar as experience with the application and network migration serve to improve the user experience.
While it is certainly worthwhile for the incumbent GSM operators to protect key customers from churning to NewGen, IDC believes it is inevitable that many of the vertical sectors most in need of PTT services will do so. IDC believes that GPRS-based PTT providers should focus their efforts, at launch, on consumers and general business subscribers. This will allow them to leverage their best selling points, build experience and expertise with the application, and later attack NewGen's core customers with the highest value proposition.
Current opportunities for GPRS-based PTT services exist specifically in white-collar and "general business" organizations, such as IT departments, general services, and maintenance personnel. These are roles in which the PTT functionality may be mission critical for the employee or group, but it is not necessarily mission critical or central to the processes of the company as a whole. The primary roadblock in these circumstances will be performance and QoS, specifically related to initiation delay and completion metrics.
On the consumer side, the best view of consumers' willingness to accept this new mobile service is probably found in the recent history of SMS demand in Jordan, which has shown one of the region's highest usage patterns. Much like SMS, however, the lack of PTT interoperability between the two incumbents' networks could be the Achilles heel of carrier-based mobile PTT services on the consumer side. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
