Ed: This is the latest in our “MoComment” section, which has guest essays and commentary from industry players. If you’re interested in writing about an issue related to mobile content industry, send us an e-mail us at rali AT moconews.net. Previous essays are here.
Ely Ousmane Fall is a mobility consultant at Adtechlab.
In the US the Mobile Industry is made of three layers (or maybe four in some instances). At the top you have the consumers, who most of the time do not know their position and power, thus they put up with whatever the Guys at the second layer decide. Those Guys, the carriers, are scary and super hungry and they will do everything in their power to squeeze the last penny out of the First and the Third layers (developers, content providers etc).This last group is made of creative and ambitious individuals and businesses who want to add value to the services provided by the Middle guys. If you take a direct look at how everyone works in the industry it is clear that the Carriers and the End-users have switched places and power. The bottom guys have developed several world class services that can truly enhance the end-user mobile experience. From games to LBS to mobile VoIP to mobile CRM to mobile search and so on...it is all here. But as you see the end-user experience is still mediocre at this point.

Isn’t it 2007? You would think that by this time it would be common to use your cellphone to pay for your parking tickets or groceries or to start your car before leaving the office etc… The possibilities are endless. The first purpose of a mobile phone was to communicate freely, regardless of your location, with humans. Now the purpose extends to communicating with our environment. In India, some users even send daily prayers to their temple by SMS. Now the purpose of mobility is to make your lifestyle easier and integrate with most of your repetitive activities.

So what is slowing the evolution from Human Only to Environment Also? There may be enough reasons to write a book, but the number 1 is carriers. Yes, carriers. They need to redefine what their role is. They want to wear several hats at the same time. Carriers should provide the very basics of a mobile communication platform, which are voice and data connections. That is it. Everything else could come from third parties and could be regulated by laws. Carriers need to let you get any sort of phone (Nokia, Motorola etc..) you like, wherever you like (let it be Korea or Finland or the US etc...) and simply connect to their infrastructure. Users should get add-ons from the bottom layer as they want. Some carriers do not let you download applications on your phone and if you wish to change provider, your current phone will probably not work with your new service provider. That is like saying “I am selling you a Ford, but you can only drive it on my highway”.

If carriers focused on connection, their business may generate less revenue but the cost of operations will eventually be lower. This is sort of like David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantages: In other words “Focus on your unique skills and advantage”. The end user can decide what add-ons he would like to get from third party services providers. If someone wants software that lets him access his files from his cell phone so let it be. Do not make it hard for users to get games that are off-deck. And certainly do not tell third party providers they cannot sell their services to your consumers because you do not believe it matches their need.
A group of 23 executives cannot decide what the end-user wants on his phone. 200+ millions. That is how big the community is. If service providers do not meet the end-user needs they will eventually shut down and carriers will not have to worry about it.

The services providers have to go through lots of protocol to have their applications on deck. And they go through more to sell it on their own because most aggregators are slowly turning into power houses and ask for substantial initial fees. All that just to add to the end-user experience and hopefully build a profitable venture.

To add sophistication to mobility, carriers need to go back to the basics. Connection is a commodity and lots of money is being made from it. They should stick to it, destroy the walls and let content providers, publishers, applications developers unleash their creativity. Innovation can be hard when the fear of being shut down is ever-present. Sure there will be a flood of amateurs, but soon the market will auto-regulate and the services that truly add value will stand out. Carriers should embrace the bottom layer community and be almost like open-source and act as a platform rather than an all-in-one.

The first carrier to truly open itself to the end-users and the serviceproviders by acting as a open bridge rather than a custom guard will startto experience what mobility is really about: Open communication with your environment.