In turn, customers demand a higher level of service, which is available 24/7, without the need to wait an excessive amount of time for their call to be answered and to learn about how to deal with IVR systems.

Mobile technologies offer a new alternative which can become a part of an existing solutions. As in the case of a web site or an IVR system, there is no need for human resources, so companies can use it to cut down costs. It is also automated, and since 60% of the world’s population have mobile phones, it can be quickly used by customers at any time and in any place. And it is simple. It’s called Eyeline Call2Service.

How does it work? A company provides a service number for their customers. When they need support they dial this number, which is free, and get a USSD menu, where they can choose from several options. These menu items may include frequently asked questions or information about other support options. This can be a web address or a call center number, which they can use if there is no info they are looking for. The service’s number can also be saved in the user’s phonebook, so he or she later have access to support on-the-fly.

It is important to note, that due to many faces of business, a USSD menu can be used in many creative ways. Moreover, Call2Service can become a part of any self-service system.

There is also a part for marketing in this system. USSD menu may contain new products and special offers, with an option to sign up for a company’s newsletter. A subscriber will then automatically receive SMS if there is update. This way, support and engaging a customer go hand in hand.

MTS (Mobile TeleSystems), one of the largest mobile operators in Central and Eastern Europe, use USSD request system to support their subscribers through *111# portal. About five million MTS users visit the portal every month instead of calling the IVR center. MTS went even further by adding different services, including paid ones. Those are the possibilities available through Call2Service, which can be provided through a toll-free number, which can be called from any mobile operator.

All in all, Call2Service may drastically improve client satisfaction due to availability and prevalence of mobile communication, while being a cost-effective solution for companies providing customer support.

And some measures of VAS…

The data for the last two tables was given by quarters so I thought that may be there are some interesting trends like the growth of data revenues over the course of the year. Data revenue have, indeed, grown faster than any other segment, and almost 4 times faster than VAS in general:

–

So… FYI, those are the end of 2008 numbers.

# of subs in mln.

95.7 mln total (if Belarus is included with its 4.32 mln.)

CAPEX

Forecast for 2009 – $1500, of which $350 million are planned for network support ($700 is a rollover from 2008, and $450 is planned for EDGE/3G upgrades). In millions of dollars.

OIBDA (unofficial terminology, Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization, which in official GAAP reports by MTS is reported as EBIDTA, though the two are different by definition) in mln. $

Operational Indicators (in $)

Russia

Ukraine

More to come… (ARPU from other countries, VAS break-down, analysis)

Read the news at Vodafone site.

MTS invited business clients to talk about 3G and business services offered by MTS.

There were a lot of decorations, beautiful girls, and entertainment. Yes, and food was great.

First about 3G.

I have not had any experience with 3G prior to this evening. I read a little, but didn’t bother to study it because I thought it is too far away from my reality. Well, I was wrong. MTS is planning to have 100 base stations by the end of THIS year rolled out in Novosibirsk. As of now, 3G is operational in the very center. By the end of the year it should be in Akademgorodok and elsewhere in the city’s center. Andrei Kozlov was a very knowledgeable MTS specialist who was patient enough to answer all my questions.

Back to the experience. 3G is great. As I understand it is pretty much defined by the speed at which data can be transferred to and from the Internet (up to 3.6 mpbs). In other words, we are talking about new services — the most famous being video-calls — and fast (almost cable) Internet. Cool. The only bummer is the price which didn’t change, thus you will be parting with your money times faster than usual. On the other hand, if not many people are using the service, you can indeed experience cable speeds.

Second. Other MTS services… well, they are just not too hot. They may be in a greater demand with the roll-out of 3G though, that’s for sure. I liked the FMC where corporate telephone network can be integrated with the MTS cellular network.

There was one non-Russian speaker representing (along with a Russian speaker) RIM and Blackberry technology. I have doubts there will be much uptake of this service once 3G and iPhone are launched, but some ex-pats may find the service worth replicating, especially if they talk to their overseas headquarters who are used to the service. Good luck!

Here are some photos from the event (first video-call, some presenters, general setup).

Reposted in May to demonstarte the use of USSD.

Played with iPhone a few days ago. Installed 1.1.2 firmware. From what is new I found that USSD Phase 2 intractive dialogues are now supported. One should have expected something like that because firmware was released for the launch in Europe. And as we know, our colleagues from Cellicium made a USSD portal for Orange. Orange, most likely, had pressured Americans to add support for USSD in the new baseband which comes with 1.1.2. I checked USSD functionality on MTS portal *111# which we are developing. Here are the screenshots.

I dial *111# and press Send. “Please wait.” Sounds promising but we have seen this with the old firmware already — after

that we would get “Error Performing Request” and the phone application rebooted when USSD dialogue of Phase 2 would start on the phone.

Cool! I get the start menu! Looks as if it has been formatted to the center horizontally and vertically. Apple as well as Microsoft with their Winodws Mobile treat USSD as something alien. Why not make normally formatted text as do Nokia or SonyEricsson? Anyways… Pressing Reply. Here we see the text of the menu. It is good, seems like they didn’t grunge on the space, well iPhone has a large display. Pressing the number from the menu. It is not convenient that by default you have a letter keyboard popping up, so one has to switch to numbers first.

Next I check weather for today.

Oh, it is nice that I have been “personalized” — last time I checked weather in Novosibirsk and now it is in the first place in the list. A small thing but makes you feel good.

The price is 13 rubles, OK, let’s buy it.

Before I pressed a button in USSD dialogue, I got an SMS with weather in my native city. I press Dismiss, and then View

for SMS. The number is formatted according to the US fashion, I guess. But weather is just great -12C !

USSD, MobileTeleSystems, iPhone

The user can choose whether to receive 10 or 20 messages a day.

Source in Russian: Мобильный контент