Economic Comparison of Delivery Platforms for Converged Sevices

As markets and technology undergo rapid change¿and ARPUs decline¿operators are looking for new ways to generate revenue and retain existing customers. In this environment, converged services present a valuable alternative to commodity-priced voice and data services. These applications are designed to enhance a customer\´s quality of life by offering greater convenience, efficiency, and expanded entertainment options. To benefit from the offering of such services, operators need to find the most efficient platform for new service introduction. In this analysis we compare deployment via IMS versus traditional Point Solution. The economic analysis shows that, with IMS, a collection of convergence applications can be delivered significantly sooner than a traditional point solution. This crucial time-to-market advantage is then quantified in terms of higher market penetration and enhanced revenues, while reducing churn in a competitive marketplace. The results provide compelling evidence that operators gain an opportunity to capture and keep "early adopters" and the high-end, technology-savvy market segments, which are willing to pay a premium for value-added services. In addition, IMS platform enables service blending that enables service differentiation and stickiness resulting in customer retention.