Asking an enterprise customer, say, a sports venue, to blanket their arena with your small cells is like asking your dad to buy you an expensive hot rod: it’s not going to happen unless you sweeten the deal. Instead of taking this one-down position, consider an approach that is working for several carriers: leverage guest Wi-Fi to not only get your foot in the door, but also to create a stampede for additional services and, yes, opportunities to deploy your small cell solution. In this way, guest Wi-Fi has become a proven growth opportunity for operators.
Expanding the small cell footprint is crucial as this expands a carrier’s service area. Small cells carry LTE and often Wi-Fi and soon they will include 5G. The need to establish as much cellular small cell territory as possible is one of the keys to long-term growth.
The other key is Wi-Fi. People love super-fast, reliable Wi-Fi, and they gravitate to it as much as they can. Devices love Wi-Fi, too, as many smartphones, tablets etc. are designed to run faster on Wi-Fi. The explosive growth of Wi-Fi calling and corresponding improvements in indoor coverage make Wi-Fi a must-have.
Wi-Fi and small cells are complementary technologies. Users will still seek Wi-Fi even if they have an all-you-can-eat data plan from their mobile operator. According to Tefficient, which has used datapoints from OpenSignal, smartphone users in almost all mature markets spend more time on Wi-Fi than on 3G/4G. Take the case of mobile operators in Finland which have 45% of their subscribers on unlimited data plans – without any caps. Their subscribers still spend 42% of their time on Wi-Fi. Compare this with the other Nordic countries which have mobile data caps and an average of 56% of their subscribers’ time on Wi-Fi, and you realize that subscribers’ quest for Wi-Fi is not about seeking a free alternative to their mobile data.
Use the demand for Wi-Fi to entice enterprise customers to take on your small cells. A guest Wi-Fi service can be a powerful marketing vehicle, as it can be designed to feed users relevant information that’s personalized for them. In our experience, users want this relevant information: several of our customers have reported substantial increases in the stickiness of their Wi-Fi services after the launch of a well-thought-out guest Wi-Fi service. Guest Wi-Fi can also be an important brand-builder in that it engages users with your corporate identity.
The demand for Wi-Fi is hotter than ever in the hospitality industry, with the rise of the “silent traveler” segment. These are tech-savvy guests who prefer to do everything online – from pre-travel booking to managing every aspect of their stay while on-site – without interacting with hotel staff. It’s no wonder that Wi-Fi is the #1 desired hotel amenity. Soon it will be the primary way for any hospitality-related business to connect with their guests.
Guest Wi-Fi also generates a ton of data about users and their activity. Enable social media logins for a fast onramp to your service, and receive some information about users (opted-in of course) in return. Tie-in the guest Wi-Fi to location data from your Wi-Fi and cellular network to glean even more valuable insights: where do users spend the most time in a shopping mall? How long do they stay in the food court? Is a marketing attraction – say, a local band playing in the shopping district – attracting users or is it driving them away?
Guest Wi-Fi helps operators remain competitive, too, as they gain additional capacity and footprint (offload) for their own subscribers on a separate service set identifier (for added security and seamless authentication).
To create a truly successful guest Wi-Fi service, operators must bridge the gap between their carrier Wi-Fi service and the guest Wi-Fi. Carrier Wi-Fi is all about secure, seamless access. Guest Wi-Fi is all about user engagement and branding. Operators must be able to combine these two by letting their subscribers seamlessly connect while still allowing their business customers to engage with the users while they are on-site. What this means is that seamless authentication, i.e. an outstanding Wi-Fi experience, must come first. Then comes branding through an SMS, email or portal experience.
Looking further down the road we for sure will see operators making use of LTE in unlicensed and/or shared spectrum. In this scenario enterprises and venues will prefer shared network infrastructure, or neutral host models, over having separate networks installed for each operator. With that comes the need of providing user engagement and relevant analytics from both the unlicensed and licensed network to the venue owners. You could say that licensed goes unlicensed when it comes to business models for venue and enterprise interactions.
Combining the benefits of a guest Wi-Fi service that users want with your small cell site acquisition “sell” can create a whole lot of traction for your sales team. You need to give enterprises something in return for hosting your equipment. It’s not about renting space for your equipment anymore. It’s about selling an attractive service. A powerful guest Wi-Fi service can seal the deal.
