The Power of SMS Marketing #SMSIsNotDead

This info-graphic was lifted from the Business2Community website. #SMSIsNotDead

SMS Revenues for carriers are slowly diminishing. I have long been a campaigner for carriers to allow others to innovate on top of their SMS asset. Carriers simply don't support this, which is why developers go to aggregators and emerging OTT providers.

SMS  is not dead, it simply has to be used in a creative fashion to engage with the users who are slowly starting to move away from using it. It's value as a consumer to consumer communication tool might be gradually diminishing (it isn't in emerging markets), but it still has far reaching legs in the B2C and M2M world.

If carriers want to continue playing in the game - that they created and owned, then they have to allow others to innovate on top of what they created. Open up your networks to people who would love to innovate on top of them. Or don't and watch the innovation (and read the fine print - the money) head elsewhere.

Carriers should not even have to think about this. Why then are there no simple to use developer API's exposed by carriers to support innovation within the world of SMS. For that matter, why are there no simple APIs to innovate on top of voice, exposed by carriers, either?

Cheers

m

Lending A Hand In The Garden

This past weekend saw some much needed time in the garden. The place is getting a little overgrown now the summer is finally upon us! Sort of!

Of course Peter had to get right in the thick of it. Really funny how he watched us and then copied what we were doing. He really wanted to be part of the action and join in the fun!

We are planning to start a raised bed for vegetables, which I hope he gets into as much as he has the pruning! Was great fun watching him try to get the garden waste into the recycling bin. He was just able to reach, although half of his handfuls ended back on the ground.

Got to love his dedication and effort though! Much fun!

Thunderbirds Jeff Tracy Communicator Built by Voxygen Using Raspberry Pi and BlueVia Voice

When I was a kid, and in fact even through high school, I loved the TV show the Thunderbirds. In fact if I am being honest I probably haven't gotten over this yet! ;-). So I was pretty happy that the Jeff Tracy style communicator above, built by Voxygen, uses the BlueVia Voice API for its communications needs ;-).

As Voxygen suggest in their blog post for the Tracy Island Communications Platform, they may consider putting a project kit up on Kickstarter. I strongly suggest if you need this in your life, and lets face it who doesn't, that you get in touch with them and convince them that this is a damned good idea!

I would suggest a name change for the product though. a Tracy Island Communications Platform, or TICP for short, rolls off the tongue like a brick ;-). Thinking through an acronym for F.A.B. for the product :-)

Cheers

m

BlueVia Voice API - One (Of Three) Key Service Differentiators When Compared to OTT Voice APIs

In the blog I posted on Tuesday about Using BlueVia Voice directly on calls between 2 phones, I think the key point to reinforce is that as BlueVia is an application layer built on top of the mobile network, it is actually possible to use that network in ways that our competitors cannot. The product demonstrated, see the video above, is not the key point. The key point is that it is possible to do enact any call functionality, supported by BlueVia Voice, on any outbound or inbound call to a mobile phone.

That mobile simply needs an Intelligent Network trigger set at the network level, to allow calls to be forwarded to an application server. The is the first key differentiator that carriers can have over OTT players, i.e. between BlueVia Voice and other Over The Top (OTT) Voice API providers. OTT Voice API providers have no control over the network, they cannot add in call functionality without the use of a Direct Inward Dialling (DID) number.

This means that for a Customer to engage with a service, build on top of an OTT providers Voice API, they must dial a DID, as opposed to directly dialling their friends number. The BlueVia Voice demo above shows a call being made directly between two mobile phones, not through a DID, and BlueVia Voice commands then being played on that call. This is the power of a telco being able to provide access to their own voice services to developers. Telcos have a unique opportunity to provide differentiated Voice API services - should they choose to.

Don't dwell on the thought that free calls based on advertising didn't work in the UK, as the product demo above shows. Remember there are still many billion mobile subscribers outside of North America and Europe who might just be interested ;-). But that is not the point.

Cheers

m

Using The BlueVia Voice API To Modify Calls Directly Between Two Phones

Using the BlueVia Voice API, and some help from Voxygen  and the Lab team at O2 (thanks guys), we have been able to create a free call demo service based on advertising. This is a voice service that allows customers to make free calls to their friends  if they listen to an advertisement first. At the end of the call there is also a mechanism to support a sales opportunity that can use the 'Charge To Mobile' API, available at BlueVia in order to convert a sales opportunity for the advertised digital content.

The significant difference about this demo, as opposed to something built on another cloud based voice API provider, is that we are able to set an Intelligent Network (IN) flag at network level for the calling SIM. This allows us to forward the call details to an application server that can then use the BlueVia Voice API to forward in call commands directly on a call between two phones. In other words we do not have to use an intermediary DID (Direct Inward Dialling) that Customer A calls, and then connect Customer B.

As there is no need for a DID in order to manage in call commands this means that a customer can call their friend directly in order to make a free call. Based on business logic at the application level, if the customer is not entitled to a free call, then the call can be dropped back onto the GSM network. For instance the customer may only have access to 5 minutes of free calls a day. This business logic is handled at the application layer, as opposed to being handled at the network layer. This in turn provides an excellent opportunity for developing a host of services based on this technology.

This is something that is not available when using other cloud based voice API services, as they don't have the same level of network control. This is something that mobile carriers do have!

On the advertising demo above, the following is happening:

• When a call is made from the first handset to the second, an IN trigger on the network forwards the call details to an application server
• the application then engages with the caller using the following BlueVia Voice commands 
• a Play command to stream the advertisement.
• a Speak command to tell the caller that they are being connected.
• a Dial command to connect the call to the number that the caller dialled (Note again, this is not a BlueVia Voice number, but their friends number).
• a Wait command for 20 seconds, and this time is arbitrary (it could be any time set by the application server).
• a GetDigits command that provides a mechanism for a sales opportunity - i.e. 'press 1 to purchase ....' etc...
• a HangUp command to end the call.

At the end of the call a SMS is sent to the calling handset with the download link for the content that the caller has purchased. Alternatively if the caller has not purchased the content a SMS is sent with a link for further information about services.

It is also possibly to have the GetDigits command directly after streaming the advertisement, i.e. support the conversion to sale at the time of advertising. This is simply a matter of ordering the BlueVia Voice commands to support this.

This is a very simple example of how a mobile carrier could make a difference in the Cloud Voice API space. Carriers who can expose their own voice services, as opposed to partnering can provide a very compelling differentiated service, should they choose to.

Cheers

Murray

BBC Reports - The Death Of SMS - well not quite ;-)

Interesting story in the BBC (Other news services are available) today that Chat app messaging has finally taken over SMS in terms of volume of messages sent. There are a myriad of group messaging apps which seem to have finally broken the SMS camel's back? Hmmm unlikely!

I am glad the BBC story also covers the following discussion: 

"most of the chat apps were used by consumers who own smartphones. However, ... there are a large number of consumers, especially in emerging and lesser developed economies, who use normal mobile phones and rely on SMS as the preferred messaging tool."

SMS as an effective means of communication, across EVERY SINGLE mobile phone often escapes the press coverage of its demise. What also is often missed is discussion about how SMS could (and should) evolve through use within the machine to machine (M2M) world.

There are worlds of growth available to SMS that would be greatly aided by one thing. Mobile carriers that whine and moan about the death of SMS and it's dwindling revenue need to ask themselves one thing - what are they doing to support it's growth. Largely from an outsiders perspective very little. As an entrepreneur trying to engage with Customers through SMS it is a difficult process should you want to do this through a mobile carrier. Sure it's pretty easy through an OTT player like say Twilio, or Nexmo, but what are the carriers doing to support innovation?

Other than allow their Customers to send SMS between mobile networks the mobile carriers have done almost nothing to innovate with SMS since the very first SMS was sent on the 3rd of December in 1992. To be honest carriers have been lucky to be able to milk the SMS cash cow for this long, without continually providing innovation with respect to SMS. Now that revenues have peaked and are starting to reduce, if carriers want to rely on SMS as a growth revenue stream they need to act.

SMS is largely a closed market though. The only way to access SMS was to own a handset and manually type the text into your phone and send it. OK there has always been access to aggregators to provide access for developers to SMS. This access is continually becoming cheaper and easier allowing any developer to engage with it. However developer access to SMS is driven not be carriers, but rather by aggregators and OTT players.

If carriers wish to embrace innovation on what is rapidly becoming a stale product then they need to open up to the possibility of innovation by others. Innovation is most likely to not come from an internal source but rather from an external party. The only way to play in the game and potentially share in the spoils is to open up developer access to core assets, in a sensible way. Why for instance, as a developer, can I not buy a SIM (or virtual SIM) with the same tariff that a regular mobile phone customer has access to - so access to a bundle of SMS that I can use within my application. This is just one very simple option (one of many!) that a carrier could entertain. As it stands at the moment any engagement surrounding SMS or Voice (two core assets of the mobile carrier) through a carrier is simply too hard to do. This is why developers are queuing up at OTT players to get access.

Cheers

m

BlueVia Voice API launched

We finally launched the BlueVia Voice API alpha on April 10th 2013. I have been campaigning that SMS is not dead for several years now, and although the Voice API doesn't provide access to SMS just yet, the plan was at some stage to add support for SMS as well. SMS isn't dead, carriers just need to understand that they are not currently using their Voice and SMS assets in an innovative fashion. Carriers need to provide open access to their Voice and SMS assets to developers, such that anyone can play and be innovative. Innovation isn't the remit of a team within an organisation. Anyone should have the tools to demonstrate and build innovation. Herein lies the beauty of BlueVia - it now provides trivial access to voice functionality for developers - and I hope also SMS soon.

To access the BlueVia Voice Alpha go to the BlueVia Portal and request access to the alpha. The following diagram shows the landing page for the BlueVia Voice API alpha from which you can request an invitation. This, links off to a Google+ community, which you can join and request access to the service. This is a little clunky to be sure, but we wanted a simple community solution in order to gather feedback from early adopters of the service. Feel free to join - we will give you $50 USD of credit to play with the service. Then feel free to leave feedback. Be brutal if you want to - all feedback is incredibly valuable to us.



Once you have been given access to the service you can then manage the numbers that we will give you. For the alpha period we will give you numbers in the USA, the UK and Germany to play with. 2 numbers in each country. These are completely free during the alpha period, however there is a limitation in that you cannot purchase further numbers during the alpha period. The following diagram shows a summary of the numbers associated with your developer account, once they have been assigned to you.



Simply click on a number to configure it to point to your application. The URL you associate with your number provides the commands that BlueVia will execute when your number is called. For an overview of what you can do, please have a look at the BlueVia Voice API alpha documentation. To see how trivial it is to use the APIs maybe look directly at the BlueVia Voice API quick start guides.

Let me know what you think. Don't hold back ;-)


On a personal note, I have been working in carriers now for 6 years. In that time I have been campaigning, unsuccessfully it seems(!), to provide access to developers to carrier assets. In DT I was desperate to provide developer access to shortcodes and extensions to provide access to enablers such as group messaging through SMS. Never got anywhere with it, while all the while OTT players were exploding the group messaging market. Now rumours are that Google tried to acquire WhatsApp for a billion.

Then came the emergence of the OTT voice and SMS players - the media darling Twilio, and the rest - Nexmo, Voxeo, Hoiio, Plivo, etc... (please forgive me if I have left you off - there are just so many of you now!). These companies provide trivial access to voice and SMS for developers and have become successful as carriers DO NOT provide trivial access to SMS and Voice.

This is why BlueVia, and the chance to provide Voice and SMS access so appealed to me. It provided a chance for a carrier to actually do something innovative and allow developers to use us for their innovation - in a way that no carrier has ever been able to do before. Sure AT&T and DT have launched voice services through their developer portals, but they have only done so in partnership with the OTT voice players mentioned previously. BlueVia on the other hand, is the first carrier to expose voice services, warts and all, through using their own assets. The first carrier to do so. We might be now playing catch up with the OTT players who have jumped the gun and not only demonstrated the value of doing this, but have also demonstrated how to do this, but at least we are in the game with our own technology.

There is a load of work to do to take the BlueVia Voice API alpha to be a truly commercial success, but if you cannot see where and how that success will be possible, then I suggest opening your eyes. We are a carrier. We have two assets that we control, Voice and SMS that are providing access to a decreasing revenue stream. We are not innovative enough to define an ever increasing revenue stream from these assets. That might sound a little harsh, but dig deep - you know it's true. The only way we can fuel growth, through innovation, is to let other people play and experiment with our assets. This was the beauty of BlueVia - Come Play With Our Network

A Four Month Winter Is Not Acceptable!

March 2013 was the second coldest March on record. It was bone chillingly cold for the entire month, and in fact, although the first month of Spring March was actually colder than December, January and February. Arctic easterly winds, from Siberia, were the norm for the entire month. Taking wind chill into account I don't believe there was a single day where the temperatures made it over 0 degrees Celsius. The average daytime temperature for March is around 8 degrees Celsius.

Consequently, most of the plant life in the garden is still in hibernation. The above photo shows a cherry blossom tree on the 31st of March with no blossom at all. Looking at at the same tree from the 29th of March 2011:



Just a little different! What the picture above doesn't show is the insane buzz of bees that are in the cherry blossom  There must have been hundreds of them. This year, so far I have seen one single solitary bee, which I saw on the past weekend. We finally had temperatures of almost 10 degrees, this past weekend (6th and 7th of April) and I was lucky enough to see the first bumble bee in our garden. I am just happy that somehow there are some bees left after the insane extended winter we have had.

Looking at the long term forecast it seems as though we are now through the winter and that hopefully the garden should now explode into growth. Here's hoping anyway as there has been a lot of damage caused by the builders over the past year! Think the garden might take a year to recover yet!

Saturday the 6th of April 2013 was a joyous day for me, as it was the first day I went outside in 2013 and didn't feel as though I would shiver to death! It felt so warm - I think we hit the majestic level of 9 degrees Celsius! Relatively speaking that felt remarkably warm! I am a creature of warmth and the London Winters, especially when they last 5 weeks longer than they should, drive me crazy.

Cheers

M