Caller ID to the rescue again

Customers in and around Beaufort and Jasper Counties in South Carolina are so tickled with the new Caller ID service on their television, they have been writing to Hilton Head-based Hargray Communications to share their stories.

Because the service just appeared on customers' TVs one day and Caller ID is displayed shortly before the phone rings, one customer discovered that, “I was able to convince my wife (who, to be fair, had a couple of glasses of wine under her belt) that I had developed psychic powers.”

According to a survey Hargray and its vendor partner Integra5 conducted on their Caller ID customers last fall, 91% said they loved or liked the service, with 65% being in the truly smitten category.

The notion of a blossoming new affair with this 15-year-old feature is supported by data from Matt Davis, director of IDC's consumer multiplay program, in a report called, “Show Me the Money: IDC Ranks the Top 10 Next-Generation services” (see chart).

Unfortunately, customers' willingness to support that affair with money is less ardent and ranks somewhere in the middle. Thirty-two percent of users over 51 years of age said they were very interested but would not pay extra. Only 25.3% of those between 18 to 30 said the same.

Although Hargray doesn't charge for the service, Integra5's survey results of Hargray customers showed 80% of those interested in the service would be willing to pay $1 or more per month. Some were willing to pay $3 for TV Caller ID or $2 for PC Caller ID. However, the company said last month it agreed to be acquired by Quadrangle Capital Partners, which may be looking for additional revenue.

Another rural operator offering the service on its cable TV network and using the Integra5 platform is Comporium, formerly Rock Hill Telephone, which serves York and Lancaster counties in South Carolina. Comporium doesn't charge above the standard Caller ID rate.

“We see it as more of a retention tool,” said Glenn McFadden, executive vice president of operations for Emporium. “And it does drive additional Caller ID sales.”

The stickiness factor is enough for both Hargray and Comporium. “It sets us apart from satellite service and adds more value to our cable TV. Also, to get Caller ID, you have to have an access line, and anything we can find that increases the value of that access line is good for retention,” McFadden said.

Davis agreed, saying the service does secure customers by increasing the value of the relationship. “Value can be determined in different ways, whether it's through incremental revenue or making the customer happier. It's hard to quantify,” he said.

Unfortunately, Caller ID and many of the new services that follow will becomes table stakes and lose their ability to differentiate. Some early-adopting rural telcos have already backed away from TV Caller ID because of performance issues. Perhaps they should try again.

“The Integra5 platform was easy to deploy,” McFadden said. “And the only complaint we got from customers was when we lost the service once or twice early on.”

The platform is the i5 Converged Service Deliver Platform from Integra5, which has been in business since 1999. In addition to TV Caller ID, it supports broadcast and targeted customer relationship management messaging, TV content alerts, targeted advertising, PC Picture Caller ID and Click-to-Call. At the Consumer Electronics Show last month, Integra5 demonstrated a new SMS to TV service with Scientific-Atlanta. The short message service will be available this summer.

“This is an exciting time because you have service providers, portals and media companies all battling for the eyeballs and wallets on the phone, the PC and the TV,” said Meredith Flynn-Ripley, CEO of Integra5.

The downside to that, Flynn-Ripley said, is that people are trying to commoditize the market. “But I think they realize that to just offer triple play is not enough anymore. It has become more of a discount vehicle,” she said. “So they are beginning to focus on the best user experience and delivering the type of service and applications that will drive loyalty.”

The advantage service providers have is their experience in delivering real-time services and Flynn-Ripley said that's why the Integra5 converged platforms focus on extending real-time services such as Caller ID to other network technologies such as cable, TV and wireless. She said such applications help service providers establish stable user identities that go beyond phone numbers and billing addresses; they're more akin to an identity of content and application preferences.

“In many ways, convergence is thought of as bringing the wireless and wireline phone together, but we add television into the mix,” she said. “We recognize the hybrid network.”

Although service providers may be inclined to provide TV Caller ID for free, there are applications supported by the Integra5 platforms that may offer creative ways of monetizing the triple play, such as gaining incremental revenue by getting compensated for every proverbial pizza delivery generated by both the advertising and Click-to-Call feature. “You are creating not only a new advertising model, but a transaction overlay that allows users to directly connect with the advertiser,” Flynn-Ripley said.