Most businesses have more than one mobile service provider. In fact, Yankee Group found that large businesses have, on average, 1.9 mobile providers (one in five have three service providers), and small businesses have 1.5 mobile providers. Why? It is probably because companies are selecting providers based on the network availability at their office locations. Seems to make practical sense, from an end users’ point of view, but perhaps its missing an opportunity to reduce costs and overheads. n many other area of corporate activity, a business will have just one strategic supplier. So why not in cellular service?
I believe it is because there has been no compelling value proposition to motivate enterprises to consolidate contracts to a single, strategic supplier. Simply offering volume discounts has not been enough.
There has never been a cost effective product to service this market. However, enterprise grade small cells could be the could be the killer app for driving enterprises towards to a single supplier
This is because so much mobile traffic is now generated indoors. And yet as more and more employees use their mobiles at their desks, the quality of the calls drops. This does not enamour an enterprise to choose any single mobile service provider when end users are unhappy with their experience and the enterprise is footing the bill for at-desk mobile calling (which is degrading in quality).
Unfortunately, it seems that the femtocell message is not always getting through to potential customers. Is it because they a just not interested in what’s on offer, or more likely, they’re just not being informed?
To find out which, Alcatel-Lucent commissioned a major seven country study to look at both small and large businesses’ attitudes to femtocells and the current service they are getting from their mobile operator.
Each market we selected to study had differing dynamics and was at different points of femtocell service launch. For example, we surveyed companies in the UK & Singapore where there have been femtocell consumer propositions for some time now. Spain was picked because there are two different operators offering femtocells to businesses. We also targeted Russia, Italy, and Australia where femtocells have only recently launched or soon to be.
I would like to share a few of the initial findings with you.
1) In-office performance is just as important as service quality out of the office. If companies believe call quality is very important in their choice of service provider, they rate in-office and out-of-office call quality similarly. Lesson for service providers: if your customers are not getting good service in the office, don’t be surprised if they churn.
Enterprise Femtocell survey Alcatel
3) Once the idea and potential for femtocells had been explained to them, most businesses got the idea pretty quickly. More than 60% said they would switch to an operator offering these services. Lesson for operators: Educate the market about femtocells. Don’t just wait for them to come you. When explained what femtocells are, most will say yes.
4) Don’t believe every iPhone used in offices is connected to the company Wi-Fi network. Many users don’t have Wi-Fi turned on or know the right password. Half of companies said that more than 25% of their cell phone bill is for mobile data generated while in the office. And enterprises tell us that while they use mobile data in the office, they are not happy with the performance. Lesson for operators: Discounted data rates (or even free) for mobile data consumed in offices will appeal to customers. If you want to do this without overloading your macro network and improving end-user experience, small cells are the only solution.
5) Companies want a more integrated communications set up. They want their mobile devices to interwork with corporate PBXs. Over 60% of businesses say they are interested in mobile extension. Lesson for operators: a femtocell can bring more than coverage and capacity, it can bring convenience and productivity gains to users.
These really are just a snap shot of our findings. Next month we will be sharing a deep dive into how businesses really are viewing their mobile service, and tips for operators in how to target them more effectively with small cell services.
By David Swift, senior product marketing manager, Wireless Networks Marketing & Strategy, Alcatel-Lucent