Brent Newsome's blog

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My advice is simple: Don't "Market" joyn.

This blog was inspired by a lively discussion I had last week, for those not there, I thought putting pen to paper would help capture it.


Don't "Market" joyn. No flashy websites, commercials, celebrity spokespeople, or race-car endorsements. Simply no media blitz of any kind. You don't need it and you're wasting shareholders money.

While this may seem to be unconventional and controversial advice to a large telcom with a huge marketing budget, but  this advice is based on practical lessons learned. 

Competitors in the mobile messaging space all started as (and many continue to be) small companies -- WhatsApp, Pinger, Kik, Viber, Skype, Facebook.

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NewPace Gains Momentum

I often use this space to discuss RCs-e/joyn, but today I wanted to take a moment and thank the hardworking teams that support these (and our other service lines) at NewPace and  all that they have helped accomplish.

I am currently on the road visiting customers in Europe and was pleased to find two positive pieces of news in my  inbox recognizing NewPace’s efforts in the technology space.

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The Future of RCSe with MVNOs

One day RCSe may become the default messaging client offered by handset vendors and MNOs. However, it has the potential to be much more. Since the RCSe client exists as an application in smartphones and other devices, it becomes a key element of the customer user experience.

This means it can be branded and optimised for the network provider offering the service. It also means that it can be customised to meet the needs of other providers, including MVNOs.

An operator offering RCSe can enable MVNOs on its network to also offer RCSe services and capabilities via white label solutions that permit further customisation and branding to deliver a personalised experience.

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Who will be next to joyn℠ the party?

With the recent news that Vodafone Germany and France Telecom are to launch RCS-e services under the new brand “joyn”, two more operators have taken the plunge.

For those of us who back the RCS-e standard, this is great news. We waited a long time for the first commercial services to be launched and it seems that more will now follow. Operators are starting to invest in the RCS-e vision – and back it with real cash and a proper marketing fanfare.

This is just the start and we hope things will snowball from here. We know that other operators are waiting in the wings and poised to act. We’ve talked with many of them: both before, during and after MWC.

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Is RCS Viable for Smaller Mobile Operators?

Yesterday, we had a conversation with a European carrier, who explained to us that the obstacle for them implementing RCS, was the upfront capital cost to purchase an RCS Instant Messaging Application Server and an XDMS.

For some time, it’s been thought that deployment of RCS-e has a number of barriers – IMS being the main one.  Clearly up-front cost is another barrier. Anticipating these barriers, we have come up with a solution that provides an operator with an RCS-e deployment that can be offered by leveraging a hosted offer.

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RCS as a Key Subscriber Retention Tool

There’s been a lot of discussion about the value of RCS. Something that’s very clear to us is that something is often overlooked – the value of RCS as a key element of a successful subscriber retention strategy.

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RCS Success On the Horizon?

Over the last few years we have seen a number of bullish forecasts for RCS success. Recently, this has changed somewhat, as a new report from Infonetics reveals.

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Carriers & GSMA are Signalling RCS-e is Real!

The announcement on Friday that Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange will be launching RCS-e in the first half of 2012 is most certainly a signal to the rest of the carrier community that after all the talk, five RCS technical specifications, and contentious debates, RCS is finally happening and gaining momentum. 

Some may are argue that this is just a political exercise to defend a poorly conceived technology with no future and that we have seen the announcements before.  This time I choose to I believe it’s finally real.

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Mobile Operators, Adopt RCS before more of your customers figure out how to download an app

Today we were talking to a very large professional services firm who works with mobile operators about our RCS-e product.  Like always within a few minutes, the inevitable question was asked about the business case for RCS on the part of the mobile operators. Every service launch has to be carefully considered and the potential revenue balanced against the potential costs. Of course, this is logical and the kind of thought process we go through in our own business.

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Starting off on the right foot

I’ve worked in the telecom and Internet space for a couple of decades and it isn’t uncommon that there is hesitation towards adoption of new products/software/approaches. It often seems like everyone circles around the idea and until one of the big players takes the plunge, no one else wants to be involved. So while the five largest European mobile operators have committed to adopting the Rich Communications Suite (RCS) standard, it is no surprise that the leap hasn’t happened yet, no one is ready to be the first.

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