CTIA: Vendors tout subscriber knowledge with metrics

Mobile metrics have already been a trend at this week’s CTIA show as more vendors are eager to show carrier’s what they know. With carriers’ focus on upgrading networks, improving device functionality and ensuring some level of quality of service (QOS), the more complete picture they can get of the user experience, the better. Vendors are ready to fill in the gaps.

Starting at the device level, Metrico Wireless, is extending its objective, pre-launch device testing program, Fit4Launch, to after the purchase. Its customers now have the chance to test features such as the dropped-call rate, speech quality and speed of Web browsing in real-world environments. Called Metrico Mobile Experience, the program will carriers know how their devices stack up to others on the same and different networks.

“Metrico has realized over the years that it’s increasingly become a device-centric industry,” said general manager Des Owens. “If you go back, it was driven by technology and the networks. Today, it’s about the devices. Those devices are being used to influence and drive market demand and share, ARPU, differentiation and services.”

With its after-launch service, Metrico is branching out from its traditional wireless carrier, handset maker and device supply chain customer base to include retailers and large companies that have dedicated device management functions within their IT units, said Rich McNally, vice president of information products at Metrico. These IT departments often select 50 to 100,000 devices that their employees will use, and keeping out the bad device is important to keeping IT costs low.

In particular, the after-launch program will test the handset's listening quality, radio-audio response, call retention, call establishment and packet-data throughput. To separate the network effect – something that companies like Root Wireless test – from the device’s issues, Owens said Metrico always uses a solid-performing reference device in every market and includes lab tests to back up the field results.Metrico will then package its data and make it available to subscribing customers for a subscription service of $15,000 per month.

Equipping carriers with this information will allow them to make better-educated business decisions based on their own and competitor’s performance results, Owens said. They’ll be able to understand why devices are returned, for one thing. And, the handset makers and component suppliers will also gain insight into which components or chipsets might not be operating at par.

Owen offered up some insight from Metrico’s preliminary tests, including that Google’s Nexus One on T-Mobile has poor uplink audio – a feature that many will never test or might assume is a network problem – in the New York City market.

“With the metrics that we give back to the carrier, we know the data for many different devices, data measured on the network backed up with lab work, so we can say with confidence it will perform well,” Owens said. “Or we can say with some confidence when it’s not as likely to represent the service as well as other devices.”

SYBASE 365, UNITED COMMTEL TACKLE METRICS AT THE NETWORK LEVEL

Other companies are approaching metrics at the network level, including NextGen Innovation Labsand Sybase 365, which both announced new data at CTIA today. NextGen Innovation Labs (NIL), a spin-off of United Commtel, introduced Mobi-Xperience QoS today, an analytics suite geared towards the customer experience. The company said it will hone in network optimization to address network capacity, reliability and coverage; radio network benchmarking for service quality assurance; consumer surveying and analytics for real-time QoS data; and proactive customer care for premium-billing customers. According to the company, the service is in trial with a tier-one operator in the US, as well as others across the globe.

Taking an even more specific approach to metrics, Sybase messaging and mobile commerce subsidiary Sybase 365 today launched a new hosted service for messaging traffic analysis. The service, Sybase Operator Analytics 365, provides operators with analytics on their messaging traffic, so that they can understand why some messages might fail and make decisions affecting the quality of service or network provisioning. This is Sybase’s first hosted analytics solution, according to Dan Auker, senior manager of worldwide marketing and business solutions, and the real goal is to help operators make decisions quickly. The service is based on Sybase’s analytics server, Sybase IQ 15.1, and draws on its substantial mobile messaging reach.

“It’s an interesting new strategic direction and new way to drive revenue by adding value-added services,” Auker said. “It’s very important in a maturing business like SMS to add value-added services on top of it.”