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Project Report from the year 2014 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, , language: English, abstract: Thanks to the advances in telecommunications and mobile computing, smartphones
have emerged as a vital tool for enhanced communication, connectivity and
productivity. With the increased penetration of smartphones and mobile
applications, Over-The-Top (OTT) mobile messaging applications now constitute a
significant threat to mobile network operators' SMS-messaging revenues. The
literature available today shows that OTT applications like WhatsApp, Viber,
Facebook Chat, Skype, etc will cost $54 billion lost in revenue to mobile network
operators. As a result, it becomes critical for mobile network operators to put in place
effective strategies that will slow the impact of OTT apps.
This research investigates the pro-active measures that mobile operators have taken
in developing countries to address this challenge and also measures the
effectiveness of these measures in their respective markets.
Data was collected through questionnaires from over 400 pre-paid subscribers in
Accra. The findings of the research show that OTT apps are changing the behaviour
of smartphone users regarding text messaging. The research revealed that more
than half smartphone users send less than 5 SMS messages a day. However, with
the introduction of "bundles" by mobile operators in Ghana as a strategy to generate
a sustainable average revenue per user seems to be working. Majority of
subscribers perceive data bundle as a cheaper and better option than Pay-As-You-
Go. However, the introduction of SMS bundle seems not to be an efficient strategy
against OTT apps since they are limited to on-net communications only.
