Broadband users are a demanding lot, with an attitude expressed in the chorus of the song by the rock band Queen, I want it all, which goes, “I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.”

The anarchistic Internet culture which expects everything for free and takes advantage of unlimited access data packages to the hilt by doing peer-to-peer downloads all day and night long – caring only for their rights and not those of other users, when mobile broadband networks speeds are intended to enable fast transient traffic, such as web access and e-mail downloads.

With the Internet content and services such Voice-over-IP, search engines, video streaming portals and music downloads going mobile and a minority of users hogging available capacity, bandwidth traffic is increasingly exponentially, whilst revenue remains flat, according to a 2009 report by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, and all this puts operators at risk of being forced to become a dumb pipe.

Moreover, voice revenue is flat or falling and additional data revenue cannot compensate for it, and all this makes it difficult for operators which differentiate themselves according to price.

This puts mobile broadband operators in difficult position as it costs operators money to provide sufficient bandwidth in their network to sustain the load and to maintain their networks, whilst providing quality service at an affordable price without losing money.

It's been found that 10% of users consume 90% of operators' resources, which puts them in the same position as a restaurant serving a buffet at a fixed price to customers at an ancient Roman banquet.

According to ancient Roman philosopher and statesman, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, these decadent and extravagant Roman banquets, including during the time of Julius Caesar, involved feasting on multiple courses of food and copious amounts of wine non-stop all day and night long, and to continue eating, the guests vomited up what they had eaten, sometimes on the floor for slaves to clean up and they continued eating more and repeated the process.

With such customers, the buffet restaurant would lose money and have to raise prices or go bankrupt, which is a similar dilemma faced by mobile broadband operators due to that 10% of users with insatiable appetites for content. So operators are forced to either raise the prices of their unlimited packages, throttle certain types of traffic or impose monthly fair use limits.

Another trend which should concern operators is that brand authenticity amongst subscribers is becoming critical.

According to a 2008 by ConsumerLab Global Infocom study61% of subscribers in developed countries wanted their ideal mobile service provider to be trustworthy, followed by 52% who wanted it to be helpful, 45% want it to be honest, 44% want it to be uncomplicated and so on in descending order.

Helpfulness and honesty topped the list at 49%, followed by trustworthiness at 40%, uncomplicatedness at 35% and so on in descending order.

Operators are currently trapped in a vicious cycle where they face lack of trust and loyalty from their subscribers, leading them to believe that money and cost effectiveness count, so they reluctant to pay for new services, which in turn leads back to lack of subscriber trust and loyalty.

“However, operators have an opportunity to build their brands around trust,” said  Sebastian Barros,  Ericsson Malaysia business development manager for Business Unit Multimedia.

To do that they must rebuild their customer relationship by fueling the customer relationship and rewarding loyalty by being innovative by developing and introducing new services which in turn reinforces customer relationship.

Ericsson is against indiscriminate throttling which penalises all users for the excesses of the few, So it proposes that the telecommunications industry learn from more mature industries which face heightened competition such as the travel, leisure, logistics and entertainment industries which have taken steps to manage and deliver the user experience promised by their brands and which are demanded by the consumers 

“The most logical way to optimise supply with demand, is to influence demand and usage with price elasticity,” said Barros. “In addition, service providers can offer value-added services for a richer experience as optional, giving choice to the consumer.”

For example, airlines have first, business and economy classes as well as peak and off-peak fares, low-cost airlines let their passengers choose what they want to pay for and when to pay for it and postal services have courier, express and regular post at different prices. Hotels have different classes ie. star ratings – to cater to the different requirements of their guests. Theme parks have express and regular lanes to cater to reduce waiting and queuing times of their visitors. They all have dynamic systems to offer consumers choice of a myriad of services and service levels.

However, with the exception of peak and off-peak call rates, the telecommunications industry is generally inflexible, with tariffs based on pre-set use patterns, which prevents them from dynamically discriminating between premium and low-ARPU (average revenue per user) subscribers by providing the quality of service with the premium subscribers want.

Such one-size-fits all tariffs also prevents them from offering priority service on-demand for a limited period to low-ARPU subscribers who are willing to pay when they want it.

One of the new services Ericsson proposes is dynamic discounting for voice.

Voice traffic normally has peaks and troughs at different times at different cell sites within 24 hours and operators usually will increase their network's capacity to cope with peak traffic, much like an operator of an urban train system, such as RapidKL would do with its light-rail transit (LRT) system during rush hour.

However, the LRT's carriages rarely full at times in between and likewise network capacity is underused during the off-peak periods, so Ericsson proposes operators offer discounts during these periods to get subscribers to make non-urgent calls – such as routine calls to their mother to check up on how they are doing or calls to a chatty friend – during these off-peak periods.

This will enable operators to improve quality of service with reduced capital expenditure, whilst at the same time increase its customer base and consequently enjoy increased traffic, increased revenue with less marginal capital expenditure and better network utilisation overall.

As peaks and troughs in a cellular networks vary according to location, with cells in urban areas where people work having peaks during the day and troughs at night, whilst the peak and trough times are somewhat reversed in residential areas.

Operators can then provide discounts based on network load at these different times and locations through cell broadcasts to inform subscribers of available discounts on their phones. They can also use USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Services Data) call setup notification to inform subscribers of prevailing discounts at their location.

Other approaches include stimulating customer usage and loyalty by allowing qualified marketing personnel to create tactical real-time promotions to relevant segments; let subscribers pay for services in any manner they choose – whether pre-paid, post-paid or both; stimulate usage by letting customers share their credit or transfer funds between subscriber accounts or to merchants; or create new revenue opportunities by offering quality of service to Internet content providers which are willing to pay for them.

These principles can also be applied as a smart pipe to mobile broadband by shaping types of traffic according to premium or regular packages, with say premium users, such as those of mobile e-mail being given priority. A smart network can also allow regular or low-ARPU users priority or additional bandwidth for a limited period when they are willing to pay for it.

Premium bandwidth can also be given to subscribers who regularly watch streaming videos, such as those of sports events  on their phone or those who regularly download music and pay for the privilege.

Ericsson also helps operators build application stores for subscribers to buy mobile content and applications. I they need a store front it provides them with a partnership manager, provides them with a software development kit (SDK), a service integration gateway and Ericsson partners with operators which want to build application stores.

Ericsson also provides the Drutt mobile service delivery platform. The Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson had acquired Drutt Corporation in June 2007.

On such application store has already been launched with Telefonica in Spain and Ericsson was in talks with two operators in China and one in Europe and for now it will focus on regional operators.

“Operators which build application stores fast will win and they must give the developers the lions share of the revenue such as a 90%,” said Barros.