Prepaid Smartphone Subsidies Pose Issues for Mobile Service Providers - Next-Gen Service Provider

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»Free Premium Content Next-Gen Service Provider: 3/27/2012 eNewsletter

Featured Articles » Smart Cities Need Service Provider Engagement for Success » San Diego Cloud Provider ScaleMatrix Significantly Increases Its Data Center and Services » MSPs: Cloud is not a 'Magic Bullet' for DR Strategies » Amdocs Survey Looks at Mobile Service Provider Opportunities to Improve Customer Experiences with their Contact Centers, Cut Traffic and Increase Efficiency   Sponsored By: Panasonic SIP Corded and Cordless Phone Systems Thanks to Panasonic, there are now a variety of SIP phone options designed specifically to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses. Customers can choose from cordless and and corded lineups, the latter of which just added its newest model, the KX-UT670, Panasonic's Smart Desk Phone. Panasonic is making a big splash in the SIP market. Last year, Panasonic's SIP UT Series was named Best-of-Show in the Open Source Category at ITEXPO West 2011. Introducing Panasonic's SIP phones - the perfect communications tool for businesses or home offices.http://sip-phones.tmcnet.com/   Top Stories » Man Who Made MSPs Possible Joins Board at Savtira » MessageSolution to Demonstrate Archiving Solutions for MSPs » Data Center Services Provider Signs Multi-Year Data Center Services Agreement with DataTree » OnApp's Cloud Platform to Benefit Cloud Service Providers   From The Expert Corner Prepaid Smartphone Subsidies Pose Issues for Mobile Service Providers March 26, 2012 By Gary Kim, Contributing Editor Smartphones have a two-faced value for mobile service providers. On one hand, they drive the fundamental sales of today’s mobile data plans. On the other hand, most consumers don’t want to pay full retail prices for the latest devices, preferring service contracts that amortize the cost of a device over time. But that raises service provider operating costs, since the subsidies are typically booked as a “cost of sales.” These contracts also reduce customer churn, so many service providers continue to experiment with greater use of prepaid mechanisms to avoid the device subsidies, at the risk of earning lower average revenue per user and increasing customer churn. As with virtually all engineering choices, mobile service providers now face marketing and revenue trade-offs. They risk higher churn to reduce operating costs but risk lower average revenue per subscriber, slow smart phone adoption at the risk of reduced mobile data revenue... Read More   Featured Video Interview with Josh Sullivan   TMCnet Free Premium Content » Autonomy's Managed Service Provider Program » Business Continuity Solutions for MSPs: How to remain profitable and avoid the Commodity Trap    Latest Blogs » What a Crazy Monday » Volubill Helps Carriers Deliver Enhanced Wireless Services   Featured Channels » IVR Service Provider » SIM Server » NGC - NextGen Voice   Webinars Download One of Our Webinars Today to learn about new opportunities to enhance your business. http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/   Contact Us   Company Directory    |    All Editors' Info   Become a TMCnet Columnist! Become a TMCnet columnist! Want to contribute your expertise to a growing audience of technology professionals? Become a writer, blogger or columnist for the TMCnet Web site and this newsletter. Contact TMCnet Group Editorial Director, Erik Linask, at elinask@tmcnet.com for details.

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