Multiplay seen as key differentiator, says survey

Integrated or multiplay service offerings are seen as one of the top three means of differentiation among mobile operators in their market, according to almost one quarter (23.1 per cent) of operator respondents to the Telecoms.com Intelligence Industry Survey 2014.

During the survey for 2013 we noted a growing belief among some operators that being able to provide a full range of communications services—fixed and mobile, broadband and TV, personal cloud storage—might be a more compelling proposition in terms of customer acquisition and retention, than a single offering.

So in 2014, respondents were asked to give their reaction to a number of statements relating to multiplay offerings, rating their agreement or disagreement on a one to seven scale where seven was strongly agree. Almost 70 per cent of respondents agreed that multiplay operators will have achieved significant advantage over pure play operators within five years—with 44.2 per cent rating their agreement as six or seven on the scale. Among operator respondents this rose to 48.6 per cent while of those who identified their organisation as a multiplay operator already, 62.4 per cent voiced strong agreement.

As we know from the survey, network quality is currently viewed as the most important competitive differentiator among mobile operators. But 23.6 per cent of respondents (and 25 per cent of operator respondents) voiced strong agreement that multiplay is a more powerful competitive differentiator than mobile network quality.

This question was one of a number that were intended to give us a sense of the relative importance of the different elements that comprise a multiplay offering. More operator respondents (21.3 per cent) than respondents overall (18.6 per cent) voiced strong agreement that Pay TV is the most important element in a multiplay offering.

In a similar vein, 23.7 per cent of operators and 19.3 per cent of respondents overall expressed strong agreement that mobile service is the least ‘sticky’ element of a multiplay strategy. What’s more, among those who identified themselves as working for a mobile operator specifically the same rating was given by 23.9 per cent.

Indeed more than a quarter of respondents agreed strongly that, as part of a multiplay strategy, domestic wifi is more important than the mobile network.

Finally, the importance of multiplay is likely to have knock-on effects for equipment suppliers. More than 70 per cent of respondents agreed— and half of operators strongly agreed—that the importance of multiplay will favour vendors with integrated offerings.

The 2014 Telecoms.com Intelligence Global Industry Survey drew responses from more than 2,000 industry professionals, including more than 700 operator representatives. The full report from the survey will be made available in February. You can register to receive the report here.