With the overwhelming array of wireless content and applications on the market, even the nation’s biggest carriers are struggling with what to offer and how to present it to the consumer. It may be no surprise, then, that smaller carriers are working overtime to offer wireless services that will allow them to compete with their well-heeled competitors.
Big-name operators are building out 3G networks to offer cutting-edge multimedia applications like mobile TV and full-track music video downloads. So regional carriers are looking for both high- and low-tech solutions to keep their customers in the fold.
“(Second- and third-tier carriers) are really scrambling to keep up” with the big players, said John A. Dwyer, president and chief executive officer of InterOP Technologies. InterOP has morphed from a regional carrier to a vendor, selling SMS, MMS and WAP content services to operators. The privately held, Fort Myers, Fla.-based company was incorporated three years ago, and has secured more than 50 contracts with 33 North American carriers.
Some regional carriers are trying to use their lack of size to their advantage, Dwyer said, by using content management software to provide local content to their customers’ handsets. Wireless data users in smaller markets could access local high-school sports scores, for instance, or regional agricultural or business information.
But when it comes to entertainment applications, the hottest area for smaller carriers is also a red-hot application for national operators-ringback tones. With only T-Mobile USA Inc. providing ringbacks on a national scale, regional carriers see an opportunity to offer the application before most big boys can bring it to market. And their smaller infrastructures can mean shorter time-to-market for ringback technology.
“Most of the carriers who are coming to us see ringbacks and say, `We’ve got to beat (the tier 1 operators),” said Dwyer.
Preferred Voice Inc., which powered the nation’s first ringback service last October for First Cellular of Southern Illinois, has also been inundated with requests from carriers.
“As a result of (the CTIA show in New Orleans), we’ve had more than 10 or 12 very good opportunities domestically” and several more from foreign carriers, said Les Gay, vice president of business development for Preferred Voice. “(Regional carriers) want to aggressively keep their customers from jumping ship.”
After quietly forging relationships with smaller North American operators, Dwyer said he’s aiming to increase the company’s visibility and target bigger carriers in North America and beyond. To help tap the growing Latin American and Caribbean markets, InterOP has opened a business development office in Mexico, and the company looks to double its staff from 30 to 60 by year’s end.
“We’ve laid the groundwork with our existing base,” said Dwyer, whose father, James, served as chairman of CTIA before founding the company. “We’re getting attention from larger carriers already.”
