“The past few years have seen fixed-line revenues fall in the face of increasing mobile revenues. To turn this trend around, the fixed-line market needs to reverse the perception of it being unimaginative and implement marketing techniques and services similar to those offered by its mobile counterparts.
Mobile operators initially had to work hard to gain market share, but with new technology, competitive price plans and non-price related value-added services, they have turned the mobile handset from a convenience into a necessity.
Rising to this challenge and making fixed-wire telephony fun again, cable companies are bringing additional and innovative services to the end user. By diversifying its product range to include broadband and television services, fixed-wire operators are now offering “entertainment services” just like their mobile competitors, attracting users back to a fixed-wire service. Taking a further leaf out of the mobile operators’ books, segmentation and price plans are now being offered by the majority of the fixed-wire operators, with deals and packages suitable for all pockets.
However, one of the key areas where the mobile operators have succeeded is empowering the end-user to manage all aspects of their bill through a dedicated online portal, something fixed-wire operators are only just looking at offering. Billing could once again play a central role in winning customers back as online billing gives the end-user a greater awareness of their phone usage and helps them identify usage trends and costs, which will become even more important as additional services are launched onto the market.”