Operators Find Five Ways to Drive Mobile Business Customer ARPUs

A new study from ABI Research identifies five factors that drive mobile business revenues for operators. They include occupation distribution, customer mobility, smartphone penetration, pricing, and device feature adoption. However the levers pulled by each operator attract a different customer demographic which in turn affects ARPUs.

According to principal analyst Dan Shey, "Our survey analysis shows that operators have pursued different strategies which have affected their mobile business ARPUs. Each has its benefits, and can deliver great near-term benefits. However the data also shows the challenges raised by these decisions, particularly in a competitive environment."

For instance, Verizon maintains high ARPUs via an extensive network that helps it maintain high customer satisfaction ratings and allows it to charge high per-minute voice rates. However extensive network coverage is not leading to greater voice usage. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has done a great job of placing BlackBerry devices in the hands of its customers, but its ARPUs are not as high since it has the lowest data pricing of all the carriers.

But operators cannot rely on these five drivers alone to maintain competitiveness with the mobile business customer. Says Shey, "Although business customers are a high ARPU customer segment, they are also very demanding. Ultimately operators need to have a portfolio of solutions which they can tailor and use individually or in partnerships to serve business customer needs."

Posted to the site on 28th October 2008