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According to a new report from Analysys, there could be 40 million subscribers to fast mobile GPRS services by the end of 2003, but the analysts say that European mobile network operators must get their act together, improving services and learning some of the harsh lessons from WAP.
The level of 40 million users can only be achieved, Analysys warns, if mobile operators move quickly to offer complete service sets, extend their mass market and learn the marketing lessons from the failure of WAP services.
Immediately operators should cease the use of technical terms like GPRS and WAP in their product naming and marketing. "Mobile operators must enthuse customers about the added benefits of GPRS and review the language they use to brand and promote these services," said the report's co-author Katrina Bond.
Mobile operators should also move the GPRS model to the pre-paid phone market, which represents some 63 percent of Western European mobile subscribers. Italy was cited as one of the key mobile markets where operators actually got this right.
Overall, more than 50 of Europe's 76 mobile operators launched GPRS services and some 3.3 million GPRS devices had been sold. Significantly, however, less than one third of device owners were actually using them to access packet-based cellular data services.
One of the key reasons why GPRS is likely to be doomed to the same fate as WAP, the Analysys report speculated, is that operators have not yet developed complete service sets that effectively address the key issues of network management, device innovation, user specific applications, value-based pricing and billing, and confident, targeted marketing.
"Although the market for GPRS-based services is now beginning to accelerate, operators must learn from the WAP experience to ensure that the branding focuses on the customer experience and not the technology," Bond added.
While businesses have been the main target market for GPRS to date, the report argues that consumer focused services are critical for GPRS to reach its full potential. In particular, it stresses the need for operators to cater for pre-paid customers, which account for 63 percent of all mobile subscribers across Western Europe, and as much as 90 percent in countries like Italy.
At the end of 2001, 75 percent of GPRS subscribers were business users, however at the end of 2003 residential users could outnumber business users, accounting for 80 percent of GPRS users and yielding almost half of GPRS revenues.
"These figures could be achieved, but only if the operators roll GPRS out to consumers as well as businesses on a pre-paid basis," Bond told ElectricNews.Net. "Different countries show different levels of preparedness for this and Italy is one of the more successful countries in this regard, with more GPRS sales and stronger subscriber numbers for pre-paid services."
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