NCL visited the US Telco event of the year in Atlanta, Georgia. One cannot help but notice the substantial differences between the US and European market.

Firstly, there is a lack of pre-pay focused mobile network operators. Operators are very post-pay focussed. So if you are selling top-up software, think carefully here! Virgin Mobile USA is an exception, however, and this pre-pay subscriber focused operator has been experiencing phenomenal growth. In the 4 months between November 2003 and March 2004 when we were there, Virgin had increased its mobile subscriber base from 1 to 1.75 million, and is now in the top 10 mobile network operators in the US.

So why is there not as many pre-pay operators. One of the reasons could be that a subscriber cannot receive calls if with no credit, and that is not an attractive proposition for a pre-pay customer. Mobile subscribers pay for a portion of the cost of receiving a call. In Europe, receiving calls is free unless you are roaming into foreign networks. The same applies to text messaging.

One particular challenge that US Op-Cos are facing is Churn Reduction, even with full number portability. Churn can be as high as 4% per month! And Churn can cost! The causes of churn are usually a lack of network coverage or customer support. CRM packages would benefit.

Inter-carrier messaging is big business in the states. Because of the number of disparate network systems (GSM, CDMA, TDMA, iDEN, PCS etc.) interoperability is not always easy and a number of inter-carrier messaging companies have started to fill this gap. Perhaps inter-carriers would benefit from MMS also. (Note that the Pan-European GSM standard ensures that OEM equipment suppliers and phone manufacturers all obey the same frequencies, network protocols (SS7) and standards making interoperability relatively, cross-network texting and roaming all a little easier. So inter-carrier opportunities are not as lucrative here in Europe.)

More recently inter-carriers are now delivering traffic back and forth to European networks. Also, some operators (T-Mobile) now route short code traffic back to home networks. So you can now get your star signs on the move in the US!

A technology getting a lot of interest in the US is Push to Talk, Nextel Communications being the leader in delivering this service. Push to Talk is like a "walkie-talkie" but operates over the digital cellular networks. Users can also broadcast to a number of subscribers.