LATAM Telecom

"Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity." -H. Jackson Brown Jr.: Participants at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week got a chance to discuss new and exciting trends in mobile services like Location Based Services, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Advertising and Advanced Messaging services. However, the single topic that stole the show is the economic uncertainty that mobile operators and technology companies are facing. The keynote conference that opened the congress on Tuesday says it all: " Sustaining Growth in Challenging Times "(1). No one can argue that these are tough times but doing nothing seems to be the current modus operandi of the industry. My friend Mark Pendergast referred to me a great article by Professor John A. Quelch of Harvard " Marketing Your Way Through a Recession ". Published almost a year ago, it is even more relevant today: "In a recession, consumers become value oriented, distributors are concerned ab...

We have discussed previously (see here and here ) the huge potential and appeal Voice to Text has and the fast penetration it has seen worldwide, including the recent launch in Latin America by Movistar Chile (see Spinvox press release here ). Ther key element that seems to be missing, however, is the lack of enthusiasm Voice Mail vendors have shown for this service. Voice to text delivers voice mail messages via SMS in text format, so integration to the Voice Mail platform is a key component. We have seen strong marketing efforts by Spinvox and Nuance, and operators worldwide are responding. Voice mail vendors, on the other hand, seem to be in a responsive mode, collaborating with integration efforts but not really pushing the service. Perhaps the single notable exception to this might be the agreement Nuance signed with Comverse, who is the leading Voice Mail vendor wolrdwide with >50% market share, but even that was an initiative led by Nuance, not Comverse. Given the fact that v...

Several operators in the Americas region are launching voice to text services. We have heard from Movistar Chile (see press release here ) as well as other operators both in Latin America and North America who are getting ready to launch. Visual voice mail (as commented here before) has gained a lot of traction with the launch of Apple's iPhone, however, I believe that voice to text has the potential to challenge VVM and become a key application in what is now known as Next Generation Voice Mail. The main vendors for this service are rushing to claim territory, 2007 and 2008 seem to be the big year for companies like Nuance and Spinvox launching the service with major operators A year or so ago when I looked at this service for the first time, I found skepticisim with analysts and industry leaders regarding whether this service had the potential to make a significant impact with operators as it was thought to be too expensive and the target market too small. After listening to oper...