OPERATORS FACING INCREASED COMPETITION FROM STRONG BRANDS

Added: (Wed Dec 05 2001)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Service brokering boosts race between operators and service providers in value chain

OPERATORS FACING INCREASED COMPETITION FROM STRONG BRANDS

A recent study by Helsinki School of Economics suggests that in order for operators to be successful in mobile services and e-commerce, maintaining their current market position, they need to create more flexible and faster methods to keep up-to-date with the rapid market changes and the fight against virtual operators and strong brands. The findings, based on interviews with visionaries and portal executives from the IT sector, whose business today is to test and define the new opportunities and positions for the future, all point to the notion that mobile operators will come under increased pressure in coming years to re-evaluate their role as service providers.

“The study confirmed a previous notion we already had that entertainment, email and PIM tools are killer applications also for mobile Internet as they have been for fixed line Internet,” comments Pekka Hirvi, vice president, strategy and business development.

“Operators’ system has to be flexible enabling multiple business models and supporting several different ways of content, service level and event based billing and charging. This is especially crucial when the GPRS networks become mainstream and operators lose airtime,” Hirvi continues.

The study, sponsored by LPG Innovations, focused on the development of future trends in the mobile commerce “Business to Consumer” sector and role of the service brokering. It also confirmed that service brokering concept, promoted by LPG Innovations, offers a fast way for service providers to move upward in the value chain, enabling them to be successful in improving their position in this challenging market situation.

Additional findings of the study suggest that in light of GPRS and packet switching networks, transaction based revenue models will become more widely used.

LPG Innovations Oy, founded in 1994, is one of mobile Internet’s early pioneers. The company provides service level enhancing solutions for corporations, operators and service providers. LPG Innovations focuses on transforming new technologies to highly scalable solutions with open interfaces and inbuilt fault tolerance. LPG Innovations' customers include mobile operators in the USA and Europe, b-to-b service providers (End2End), and large corporations (BMW, Ericsson Finland). LPG Innovations’ partners include Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Cap Gemini Ernst Young, and Oracle. The company is owned by employees and the venture capital company CapMan Capital Management and Softbank Europe Ventures. LPG Innovations has offices in Finland (HQ), UK, and Germany.
www.lpginnovations.com

For further information, please contact

Pekka Hirvi, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development LPG Innovations Oy
tel. +358 30 60061
pekka.hirvi@lpginnovations.com