Crowdsourcing and USSD

Do you know of crowdsourcing? Did you follow the link? Now you know. In simple words: it’s when you outsource some tedious task which requires a lot of manual labor to countries which have a lot of it.

And what a great idea to use this concept with USSD! Nathan Eagle from MIT wants to make it happen.

His idea is to employ USSD to have people in East Africa do manual tasks like translations for Nokia into local languages and medical transcriptions. See a list of possible tasks.

It would be such a noble thing to help Africa which clearly needs help:

and to apply the easiest and the cheapest mobile technology! I simply love that initiative. Hope it takes off.

Global Warming: So It's OK to Ignore It?

Just read (again!) about global warming. Although this year is unusually cold, scientists say it is masking the reality of being one of the 10 warmest years. Well, here in Novosibirsk we do not feel that warm — for the second week in a row we have -25 to -30C temperatures with cars failing to start and very uncomfortable conditions on the streets despite sunshine.

Amidst all that, I was really shocked to see GSMA ignoring our application for Green Award (and pocketing $600).

May be it just happened that we have build the most efficient SMS/USSD center. It sends 180,000 SMS using the power of one light bulb. Think about it.

But they say it does not matter? Does it matter less than these…???

Smart Communications: Alternative Power for Cell Sites program
Nokia Siemens Networks: Environmentally Sustainable Business (ESB) initiative
Vodafone: Reducing Network Energy Use
Alcatel-Lucent: Eco-sustainable Communications Transformation
Telenor: Climate Change Programme

Is it because we are small?

People are using SMS more and more, it’s the second communication mode to voice. And making it more efficient — and showing the world that it matters — is not helping the industry BIG TIME?

What are the aforementioned initiatives? I dearly hope they will make some impact. But the change should start from the small with the biggest impact. From something SUSTAINABLE because it makes everyone to save (every SMS will burn less coal in India and China). From equipment being efficient, like Sun’s. From programs which do their job consuming less resources. Not some “initiative” which will probably require more resources than it saves.

I am by training an economist. And I understand that if the price of green is yet small, people pay it and screw the world. But our center is also one of the cheapest. What we were looking for was some help with promotion which, by the way, would have saved as much electricity as 164 Europeans (already energy conscientious) consume per year.

But the black box of GSMA judges just chewed us up and spat with delight! Shame.

Are Missed Calls Your Missed Opportunities? Learn Dry Facts.

It was the end of last year. I was asked to prepare a description for one of our products called Missed Calls Alerts. Not that we don’t have one. We just wanted to update to a better version.

A good news for me was that we hired a new girl to help me with writing and I though it would be a good first task for her. She did fine as to describing but…

What is the real selling point for this service, I asked myself?

(For those unfamiliar, the service sends an SMS to a subscriber who was unavailable to take the call about missed calls (who, when, how many times). The service can be extended to send SMS to both parties (the caller and the called), to send SMSes as if from the called party so it is easier for the called to call back, to identify callers from the phone book, etc.)

Well, right off the top of my head, I thought we shall be looking at at least 1 percent ARPU increase.

And you know, that’s what I found asking people from all over the world. But it is really good news! Because it means that every operator should have it (the cost of the solution compared to the benefits says: GET IT!)

And indeed, this product is rather common in mobile-developed parts of the world (meaning NOT the US).

Below are answers to my question about the service on a LinkedIn VAS Professional group:

1) Where it is used:

Felipe Huete, Founder and CEO at MZZO Chile S.A.

Here in Chile we have the service, it works quite well. I don’t have numbers but operators consider it a key service.

Ronen Mense, Interactive Mobile Channels – Mobile Marketing, Advertising, Search

I’ve seen this service here in Thailand for a few years, quite common in fact, and I believe its operator centric. Yet to see what Felipe mentioned as the addition of VAS ads, this is a great ad inventory… Would love to get some of that ad inventory!!

Refik Naccur, VAS project expert/Norconsult Telematics/at STC Kuwait “VIVA”

Talking about the MCA service in the Middle East, it is know in different names like IClip, Super Clip, Majoud “Which means: I am present” and so on. … Any way, this service is very common is the Middle East and I believe it is very essential service for the operators in the area …

Bartlomiej Chmielewski, Product Manager at PTK Centertel

Hi everyone! I’m a Product Manager for MCA-like services in Poland. I do confirm that MCA as well as Notify Me services as performing well and have a great accommodation on the market.

Frederic Ankaoua, VAS Account Manager at Comverse

Hi Ivan, I’m an account manager in Comverse and we have more than 140 operators worldwide providing this service.

Ankur Srivastava (ankur.srivastava31@gmail.com), Product Manager – Cellebrum Technologies Limited

Hi, I have implemented MCA (only called party) for one of the largest operator in India.

2) Now, let’s talk numbers. In order to calculate, we need several statistics and assumptions. That’s what people have contributed:

Bartlomiej Chmielewski, Product Manager at PTK Centertel

In terms of numbers I can say the ‘twins’ [MCA + Notify Me (when user available) - I.K.] can increase your MoU by 10-15% and I have it confirmed with numbers.

Frederic Ankaoua, VAS Account Manager at Comverse

I can tell you that figures from some Western European customers show that there is between 15 to 20% call return due to the Missed Call service.

Raul Castanon, Experienced Product Management / Product Marketing Professional

Typically I built the business case with estimate 10 to 15% which I think is a realistic rate of call return. … Statistics from different operators that have deployed missed call alert support an average of 12% call return.

Ankur Srivastava (ankur.srivastava31@gmail.com), Product Manager – Cellebrum Technologies Limited

No. of messages recvd by the subscriber in a day – 4 (avg)

Calls made after receiving of message – 50-60%

Service Penetration – 10-12%
Price point – INR 15 = 30 cents
Business Model – Revenue Share/ Managed Service with the vendor

Dmitry Mezentsev, Head of VAS R&D, CBOSS

We have in stats 10% of incoming calls that can be notified only by means of MCA and about 40% of call returns which gave 4% total calls increase.
The only question here is service penetration which is in spite of MCA is free is not 100% but sometimes only 5% (we had such a case).
So taking in consideration fair 25% penetration (or 10-12% like in Ankur case) we’ll get 0.5-1%, but it’s really great figure for such a service.

My summary will be the following:

Besides the incomplete voice mails and unreachable, our statistics show that out of 100% sent MCAs only a third are delivered (within one day, that’s the lifespan of the service here in Russia’s MTS). Also we have 100% penetration since the service is on by default.Also: what would be a percent of missed calls in general? I saw 40% somewhere but this seems too high. With our service always on, we have the *perfect* number of about 10% of all calls that are missed and alerted of. Of which, only a third of MCAs are delivered within one day, thus we have a 3% potential increase in voice traffic. If we combine this with Raul’s 12% call back stats, we get 0.3% increase in ARPU. I think the return rate is three times higher (about 40%) thus we have a 1% increase in calls. Thus an estimate of 1/2 – 1 % increase in ARPU as compared to the situation of no such service seems to be a pretty good approximation.

However, this calculation assumes that the calls made after the alert (let’s call them “MCA calls”) would have not happened otherwise (i.e. without the alert). It seems to be a pretty restrictive assumption and it depends on how impulsive and important were the calls. Would they have happened in any case? Let’s hypothesize: I think about a half of MCA calls are a pure increase (impulsive, non-important), whereas the other half would be made anyway (called until one delivers the important message).

We then get a 1/2 percent increase… within the (lower) range of others, seems reasonable altogether.

To make it sweeter and to support the proud name of a marketer, I would say (because of all other assumptions which can take on higher values as well) 0.5-1 percent ARPU increase. Viola!

(Of course, there are additional complications like minute-bundles: may be that’s the reason why the US does not need this service — they probably care for LESS MoU for unlim plans)

USSD white paper

Join LinkedIn group to discuss USSD

Get a PDF version of this paper

“I’m Back in the USSD”

(You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, Boy)

“USSD is doing its comeback.
An old technology that finds its niche solution
providing a web surfing experience -
just using text – and at no cost.
The session ability that is inherent in the technology
is a major advantage over regular SMS.”

Amir Dorot
CTO, Cellact

Start using USSD, come back to the old good things!

For ages we know that certain things are good for us. But we don’t use them. We continue on looking for something new, a “magic belt” to loose weight, instead of “getting there” by using something proven; by eating less and exercising, for example.

The same is true for an old and unique technology called USSD. It makes communication from a mobile phone with a computer in the mobile network extremely easy. It gives a subscriber a simple dialog functionality. It is free in roaming.

USSD stands for Unstructured Supplementary Services Data sent to/from GSM mobile networks. USSD technology is defined in GSM standard 02.90 (USSD Stage 1) and 03.90 (USSD Stage 2). What is valuable, however, is a USSD service used by a subscriber and provided by a service application.

Nowadays USSD technology is becoming more popular. It’s getting used for various services, most often nowadays for mobile banking (read about applicability of USSD for mobile banking in these two white papers). USSD is getting used for mobile coupons. USSD is used in roaming for Call Me type services.

USSD Services: the Essence of It All

Of course, technology is secondary, the use of it is primary. What can one do with USSD? The following list compactly summarized the most important cases:

• Balance Inquiry (dial *100# and receive your balance on the screen of mobile)
• Balance Top-Up (e.g. using scratch cards – dial *101#cardPIN# and receive money to your phone account)
• Balance Transfer (payment from your balance to another balance – dial *102#phone-number#amount#)
• Call Me (requesting another party to call you – dial *103#mobile-number# and the other party will receive a “Call Me!” note from the number to call)
• Profile Management (add someone to your plan, change your plan, manage services – portal with a menu at *111#)
• Mobile Banking (e.g., Barclay’s Bank in India)
• Notifications (“Time to top-up”)
• Subscriptions (“Would you like to subscribe to a news service? 1=Yes, 2=No”)
• Voting (“Please rate our customer service: 1= good , 2= ” after a call to bank)
• Games (E.g. ‘Maze’ where a teenager gets prizes by finding his way in a maze)
• Delivering non-intrusive personalized mobile advertising (“Your balance is $10. Start saving with a new plan by calling 12345 now”)

What is Needed to Get USSD Going?

USSD is a very simple and robust technology for the end user. As a rule, a user just dials a number (usually preceded with a * and enclosed with a #) and receives a text (a menu) on the screen of the mobile that can be responded to (answered). In effect, a user enters a dialog with the application. There is also an alternative way to initiate a USSD session by dialing a regular phone number. If you are interested in learning this new way, contact us.

For a content provider, USSD can be somewhat problematic. In technical terms, a USSD service requires a USSD application which needs to be tailored to a particular USSD gateway/center located in the mobile operator’s network. Therefore, a content provider needs to find a suitable technical or aggregation partner (like Eyeline Communications for MTS, Russia) who would help.

Note: It is possible to provide USSD services globally without the use of a particular operator. Contact Eyeline for more details on this use of USSD technology.

For mobile operators, a USSD center (gateway) (see Wiki Definition) is a piece of hardware with software that needs to be integrated into the core network and plugged into other modules like billing. If you are interested to know details (there are some), see our USSD center presentation.

There are lots of suppliers of USSD gateways/centers. And I mean “lots”:

http://eyeline.mobi/sms_ussd_center/
http://interacctsolutions.com/
http://patternmatched.com/products.html
http://press.nokia.com/PR/199903/777096_5.html
http://www.6dtech.co.in/products/messaging/ussd.html
http://www.acision.com/ also known as Logica/CMG
http://www.bhartitelesoft.com/products/ussd.htm
http://www.cellicium.com/ussd/info/
http://www.comverse.com/data/uploads/products/USSD%20Center%20BR%202008%200398b.pdf
http://www.flashmedia.co.za
http://www.inswitch.us/ussd_gateway.htm
http://www.leibict.com/
http://www.mctel.net/art.php/en/ar21/ussd-gateway.html
http://www.opencode.com/solutions-1-1.php
http://www.sacaya.com/ussd.html
http://www.sicap.com/products/ussd-menu-browser/
http://www.surizontech.com/products/messaging.htm
http://www.syniverse.com/content.cfm?section_id=2&service_id=3&service_type_id=1
http://www.telenity.com/usc.php
http://www.truteq.co.za/products_telco/
http://www.wind-mobile.com/images/WM_brochures/PharosUSSDGateway_Brochure_EN.pdf

Because I am from Eyeline, I should speak only for Eyeline. As our experience show, the choice of supplier is usually based on whether you know them, whether they had contacted you, or whether other operators are using their solution. It is an OK approach. But if you want to make an intelligent choice, it is better to host a competition and invite all companies (if I missed some in the list above, please let me know!), having clear criteria to judge them.

As to our center, I see four pluses with my own eyes:

1) Installation. It is very compact and thus can be easily added to existing infrastructure.

2) Performance. You can measure it by messages per second, for example. Our developers are spending considerable time building probably the most powerful solution. At the same time it is small and expandable.

3) Maintenance. Since my officemate is a guy from technical support, I see how we stand by our solution. We have dedicated support specialists who monitor the centers day and night. Not because there are problems but because our customers should have their peace of mind.

4) Track Record. We have supplied USSD centers for the 10th largest operator in the world since the beginning of the century.

Do you want to have the most efficient USSD solution? Get in touch.

Knowledge is Power: Get to Know USSD

Well, take the most out of this amazing technology and avoid potential pitfalls. A long and heated discussion on LinkedIn about obstacles to a faster uptake of USSD, has yielded a list of potential “pitfalls” that I must evaluate here.

Handling USSD Objections

All Good… but What Are People Saying?

Dozens of people from all around the world discussed the future of USSD. They shared their real life stories. Although I asked them a question about obstacles to a faster uptake of USSD, they could not hold their personal excitement about USSD services. Below is a digest of what they have said:

• USSD is used “for prepaid top up because many people prefer punching in while seeing on the screen rather than going through an IVR.” (Jean Cerien, CEO at COMM4U; Paulo Correia, Telecommunications Consultant; Niranjan Srinivasan, Ericsson – Design & Planning – IN & VAS)

• “USSD is very popular for a number of core and killer services like:

- Subscriber profile and balance management
- Non standard call initiation (like shared charging, B-party charging)
- Call back services
- Rarely voting services” (Murad Mamedov, Wide Area Specialist, Paulo Correia, Telecommunications Consultant, Jim Murphy, Product Manager Homisco Inc.)

• “More generally, USSD is used:

- where you need subscriber to confirm some action. For example, a balance transfer service.
- where a simple menu consisting of a few items is needed.
- where you want to be sure that your interactive service could be used by all your subscribers disregard of phone model or service settings.” (Yuriy Filatov, Solution Architect at Ericsson)

• Valentin Micic (PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT at PHAROS CONSULTING) adds:”CallMe service (a service where a subscriber dials an USSD string, resulting in an SMS being sent to another subscriber, asking him/her to phone the caller back). The initial thinking was that this service will never exceed more than 12 requests per second. A few months later, we’ve been sitting on 100 requests per second – and all that without any advertising. So much for the hard-to-use argument…

These days USSD is used for a number of things, including mobile banking.

Some operators are using USSD for notifications — at least one operator in Europe is using USSD gateway to push One-Time-Password to subscribers requiring secure login over the internet (the reason: cost – it is much cheaper than SMS).

USSD is also used to generate revenue for the operators – time-based billing, where subscriber is charged for a time spent utilizing USSD. An interesting point is that introduction of the billing caused the usage of (what used to be) a free service, to drop substantially, only to bounce back to the similar level within few weeks.

Also, there is a number of pilot projects in telemetry and application-to-machine communication, e.g. switching things on and off, checking statuses etc.”

• “Broadcast adverts that are spawned by a USSD transaction” (Graeme Lewis, Telecommunications Projects and Marketing Professional with 25yrs experience). “Started to use USSD technology as a promotional channel just with a short message after balance requests.” (Paulo Correia, Telecommunications Consultant)
• “The same way that subscribers are using WAP, SMS, IVR or even Web site – they can now operate the same services using USSD. From the feedback we get from our customers – we know it is a very simple way to operate those services – and subscribers rapidly adopt this technology.” (Amir Dorot, CTO, Cellact)
• “Mobile payment service based on USSD. Very simple and convenient. Person receives a bill (paper or digital) with the USSD code he has to use to pay the bill.” (Goran Radic, Country Manager at Siemens IT Solutions and Services)
• “Our implementation on USSD includes services such as Balance/Recharge, Voice Mail activation, Registration of Family and Friends numbers, Change of Tariff Plan” (Carlos Mendoza, VAS, Product Development at MTN Irancell, Tehran, Iran)
• “For prepaid – balance request after toping up; balance view after calls and SMSs.” (Paulo Correia, Telecommunications Consultant) “USSD is the preferred and best mode to do balance checks & recharging prepaid accounts.” (Niranjan Srinivasan, Ericsson – Design & Planning – IN & VAS)
• “Transferring money, using refills, making changes to your account. Our USSD gateway has been very beneficial in this area.” (Jim Murphy, Product Manager Homisco Inc.)
• “USSD is great for content subscription. An out-roaming customer wants to contact his friend whose mobile number is 9810012345. He simply dials *333*9810012345#. His friend receives a message requesting him to call the customer back — this increases ARPU for the operator!!! (Call Back service)” (Gaurav Sarin, Telecom Evangelist)
• “USSD allows for very complex and customer oriented services like CUG (closed user group), money transfer from one account to another” (Patrick MIDY, VAS engineer at Digicel)

How to Make Sure USSD Services Spread Like a Wild Fire?

When launching USSD services, it is paramount to have a good marketing campaign. I mean a good old classical AIDA campaign. It is absolutely necessary to build Awareness or Attention, that is to teach people about USSD (the easiest way to learn USSD is through a balance check routine; it would also be a good idea to start advertising your *111# portal). Then move on to the Interest campaign (for example, by advertising a “killer” application like “Call Me”). Decision/Desire can be provoked by a voting application (“Vote Now” via a Balance Check Ad?), and the Act can be induced by a FREE trial of a Top-Up, a Weather, a Sports, or a Balance Transfer application.

Besides this marketing campaign for end-users, content providers and operators must have a clear understanding of what USSD services are capable of and they must be aware of myths surrounding USSD. As to the latter, operators must understand that USSD does not impede the network in terms of call (service) availability. It’s a myth. There are no such instances recorded around the globe. USSD also does not replace but rather add revenue streams to existing SMS services. This is good news for service providers. USSD is often considered a dead-end technology in the view that 3G will replace it. It is a wrong view. What 3G adds to the mobile network is access to a faster Internet from a mobile phone. If porting of USSD services to the Internet consumes resources (as it does) and if it increases end-user costs (in terms of service accessibility from 2G phones, service learning costs, and roaming costs), a mobile operator will loose from switching attention away from USSD portals. Many experts including myself believe that USSD technology will be increasing in use and that it will in fact enhance 3G experience.

It is easy to start/to try using USSD. Of course, big volumes of USSD services need appropriate technical infrastructure. But in order to start serving USSD services NOW, you just need to contact us. We offer 1) immediate global USSD services accessed through a regular or 800 number; 2) global USSD coverage through renting of our USSD center (about 1 week lead time); 3) USSD center ownership (depends on hardware delivery, about 1 month).

When revenues are stabilizing and 3G is not yet paying back, launch USSD services to increase your ARPU!

Date: November 7, 2008

Author: Ivan Komarov, k@eyeline.mobi, Skype: ivankomarov

Contact: Eyeline Communications Inc., http://eyeline.mobi/contacts/

Green SMS and USSD Centers

There is a lot of talk nowadays about being Green (because of the climate change) and now also about being cost efficient (because of the world financial crisis).

So the question is: how efficient is your SMS/USSD center/gateway?

See what people are answering: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/information-technology/telecommunications/TCH_ITS_TCI/358022-7613196

And cast your vote!

 Speaking of voting: Congrats to Obama supporters!

Banking-On-Mobile Paper

There is a paper that everybody cites nowadays. It’s on mobile banking and it has a description of mobile banking using USSD. In general, the question of how does USSD stand vs. other delivery channels is discussed.

You can download the paper here. And discuss it by commenting to this post. Especially the part discussing the use of USSD in m-banking. Here is also a paper from Finmark which is very elaborate.

WSJ: Selling Potatoes By Phone

Below I will re-post a full (almost) article as it was reported by the Wall Street Journal here.

Why did I decide to re-post it here? Just because, I am the Editor! Well, more precisely — because it is interesting. Wait. No: because it gives us ideas about what to do in poor countries which love VAS more than rich countries. Why do they love VAS? Because poor countries use mobile phones not just to call but to enjoy every little thing on them. And there are indeed a lot of hidden treasures even in the simplest mobile phones. Mobile phones can supply crucial data and they do substitute computers and Internet. The question in this context is “How to build a profitable business model?” Read more

Text Messaging is Most Popular

Source: WSJ

“Silicon Valley start-up 4INFO, one of the most-active players in text-message advertising, plans to announce a new trial partnership with Yahoo. Under the arrangement, 4INFO provides the technology for Yahoo to publish its content, such as news updates, horoscopes, sports scores and weather forecasts, via text messages that also contain a small ad. Consumers sign up online to receive the alerts”. Read more