Airtel, Vodafone & Idea working with app vendors on improving network for users to drive data revenue

NEW DELHI: Top telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea are actively working with mobile application vendors to improve the network performance and experience for smartphone users that will help them retain subscribers and drive data revenue.

Idea Cellular’s chief marketing officer Sashi Shankar and Aircel’s chief technology officer Sameer Dave told ET separately that the companies are in discussions with e-commerce firms and other services that require high traffic and high volume.

Market leader Bharti Airtel and No. 2 Vodafone India also conducted appathons and contests recently to bring leading app developers and providers in India to a common platform to help them improve their performance, tuned to their respective networks.

Among other benefits, such collaborations help improve network speed and enhance battery life, both immensely important for subscriber retention at a time when revenue from data services is driving growth for telecom operators as voice is almost commoditised.

Anand Chandrasekaran, chief product officer at Bharti Airtel, said that such collaborations open up a new vista for developers to further improve customer experiences. Improvements in speed, performance and battery life can sometimes make the difference between buying an exclusive smartphone on an ecommerce app or book a movie ticket.

“We’ve heard from several subscribers who have seen 20% or more improvement in battery life as a result of suggested changes. Snapdeal, for instance, did major improvements and is seeing big performance gains as a result of the appathon,” Chandrasekaran said.

He added that one other e-commerce company mentioned that often 30% of issues can be resolved by understanding network parameters better.

Analysts say that operators always have rich network assets and when these are opened to app developers or appbased services, new features can be developed, leading to an enhanced app experience for consumers.

“There’s no doubt that network failure of any kind hurts the businesses of both the stakeholders. For instance, if e-commerce goes on efficiently, operators would certainly gain, and more m-commerce or e-commerce results in increased data usage, which telcos want,” said Mahesh Uppal, director of telecom consultancy firm Com First.

Another important dimension of focusing on apps is having a good understanding of consumer’s expectations and segmentation. If telecom service providers understand their consumers better in terms of their services consumption, usage and behavioural patterns, they can help developers create better consumer centric apps.

AVodafone spokesperson said that the company supports app developers with consumer understanding coupled with network-based APIs (application program interface). “All these APIs when combined with the device and platform capabilities help in creating an app that will meet the expectations of that particular target consumer segment, thereby increasing app adoption rate,” he said.