Partnership Pays

In March of this year, Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications provider in the United States, announced a partnership with internet giant Google. The partnership manifests itself with Sprint fully integrating the Google Voice feature-set in to its offerings. This partnership effectively makes it a seamless experience for Sprint subscribers to make use of transcribed voice mail, cheaper international calls and of course the flagship Google Voice “one number to rule them all” functionality, which makes all your phones ring (and even your Gmail account) when someone calls your number.

The winds of change in the telecom industry are affecting all network operators, who are slowly becoming mere bit carriers, forcing the voice industry down the inevitable route of commoditisation. The reality is that the only aspect of service that operators compete on these days is price. And even the price card can no longer be played with a great deal of confidence, as the majority of carriers are offering all-you-can-eat voice plans that have shaved billions off the market caps of the providers.

Embracing innovation
This is slowly beginning to change, as some of today’s wireless network providers in Europe are embracing innovation and partnering with value-added service providers, which help differentiate them from their rivals. For example, Spanish Telefónica acquired Jajah for $207m (£127m) last year, and Swedish operator TeliaSonera recently signed an exclusive partnership with Spotify.

In Britain, most operators, with few exceptions, are to all intents and purposes slow to catch on to this seemingly pervasive trend. One exception is Vodafone UK, which is known for being a front-runner when it comes to embracing innovative trends.

In March of 2009, Vodafone joined forces with Twitter to offer its subscribers Twitter updates via SMS at no additional cost, becoming the first operator in Europe to do so. In the same month a year later, Vodafone announced a second partnership, this time with location-based social network Foursquare. This deal gave customers instant access to Foursquare’s mobile site from any mobile internet-enabled device. By piggy-backing on Foursquare’s success, the operator has boosted its brand perception amongst consumers.

These developments reflect a fundamental shift in operator mindset, and indicate the acceptance of partnerships and acquisitions of innovative, value-added third-party services, such as Google Voice, Jajah, Twitter and Spotify, and the role they play in helping operators to stand out from the crowd. Remaining single in such a competitive market is simply not an option.

Andreas Bernstrom is CEO of mobile VoIP company Rebtel