NEW YORK-With the March 12 commercial debut of NetProfile Wireless Edition, Bridgewater Systems, Kanata, Ontario, is offering a chance and a challenge to mobile operators seeking a profitable way out of their walled gardens of data delivery.
The new software product allows network operators to relinquish their inhibitory role as bottlenecks to the Internet while still controlling provision of and billing for individual data services, said Mike Ozburn, president and chief executive officer.
NetProfile is intended to prevent carriers from becoming what they fear most-dumb pipes. These are the entities that invested heavily to construct the connectivity infrastructure, which is the pre-eminent value of mobile communications, but are unable to capture the enhanced revenues from its delivery of advanced services.
“We are primarily marketing to carriers today. Because NetProfile sits on the data stream and looks like a proxy server, there are no big engineering issues,” Ozburn said.
“It can also sit inside a wireless ASP (application service provider) or inside an ASP. The risk to wireless carriers is these other players also can use NetProfile for services from many carriers and turn carriers into the dumb pipes.”
NetProfile operates behind WAP gateways and behind the front ends for 2.5-generation and third-generation wireless systems. Acting at the level where a user request is made from the browser of a mobile phone or handheld computer, it lets each wireless carrier interact with Web-based applications as if they are Web pages, Ozburn said.
“The carrier can make all phone-friendly Web sites available, define the conditions under which they are available and make agreements with content providers,” said Ozburn, who developed Nextel Online for Nextel Communications Inc. before joining Bridgewater Systems in November.
“The carrier defines the service packages based on customer profiles and can allow for mass customization by extending the administration of those packages all the way to the end user, who might pay a small (additional) fee (for that privilege).”
NetProfile can work with what Ozburn described as the four basic kinds of wireless data revenue streams: those based on the number of bits and bytes transmitted; paid-in-advance subscription plans that may start out as free promotions; package plans that provide several kinds of content, with revenue divided among providers on the back end; and one-time impulse purchases, similar to those available in pay-per-view television.
The system also includes an accounting server, which aggregates transaction information and feeds it into billing and auditing systems. It also enables carriers to determine how much they owe individual content providers.
“Everyone is enamored of (NTT) DoCoMo, which announced 20 million users this week. The excuses given for why this doesn’t work here are about technology and cultural differences. … The carriers we have talked to in the United States and Canada want to break down their walled gardens,” Ozburn said.
“DoCoMo has harnessed the competitive engine that has always led to success in telecommunications and has always led to failure if it isn’t harnessed. They provide as many applications as possible to as many people on as many devices as possible. Provided you know how to make money from this, your business is secure.”
