GoLive! Mobile Blog

April was a good month for SBR — in fact it was a record month. Across all of our short codes and aggregator connections we collected 94% of billings — shattering our previous record of 91%. While we had great divergences amongst short codes — ranging from 72% – 98%, the overall average of 94% seems to indicate that the carrier billing systems here in the U.S are starting to really tighten up. As usual, shared short code clients experienced much lower SBR’s than dedicated code clients.

Our UK clients collected at a very impressive 97% blended, which helped the average.

US client base collected at 89%.

About a year ago we started our agent program with an aggressive 15 – 25% recurring commission paid to qualified agents, and I’m happy to say that the first year has truly been a homerun for us.

We have amassed a team of almost 100 agents, and together they have brought us nearly $5 million in revenue as of the time of this writing. We plan to have a Christmas Gala for all of our agents later this year — Maui anybody?

If you are interested in becoming a GoLive! Mobile Agent, please email sales@golivemobile.com with your Resume and other pertinent information. It is a commission-only program, and you really are only expected to refer leads to our in-house sales team.

Verizon has just launched OIOO — a system similar to AT&T’s impending OPPC which aims to give the carrier more visibility and control over premium SMS transactions. Short code operators are required to migrate to this platform by the end of the month. Clients will be happy to know that we have successfully passed OIOO certification with Verizon for all of short codes in our network — OIOO is now integrated into our product lines and abstracted from client view.

We’ve blogged quite a bit about AT&T’s OPPC, and OIOO is essentially a similar version except it’s more light-weight and still leaves control over the messaging flow to the content provider. The bottom line with OIOO is that we used to simply be able to bill Verizon subscribers in real-time with one transaction, however now we must send an automated notification to Verizon and wait for them to respond with a unique Session ID prior to billing the end-user. Essentially this Session ID gives Verizon a tracking mechanism for all their premium SMS subscriptions. When opting out end-users, we must also send an opt-out notification to Verizon. So now Verizon will be able to keep detailed, local records of premium SMS subscription histories.

Comparing OIOO and OPPC

The major differences between Verizon’s OIOO and AT&T’s OPPC are as follows:

1) OIOO is only for premium SMS subscriptions, while OPPC is for all premium transactions.

2) OIOO still allows us to control all messages sent to the end-user, while in the case of OPPC the carrier is directly sending the “advice of charge” message with  no ability for the content provider to customize this message on the fly.

3) OIOO does not have any end-user refund management system as OPPC does.

As we all know, the carriers pretty much do what they want with regard to short codes. There is no regulation of short codes currently, so the carriers do what any business should do and treat short codes just like any other product or service they offer. Short codes are accepted and provisioned based on each individual carrier’s own terms, and often short codes are rejected by carriers because the service seems threatening or competitive in some way.

After some high profile short code rejections by the carriers, including PayPal and RebTel amongst others,  a group of consumer groups have taken note of the status quo and are petitioning the FCC to change it.

Realizing that they can’t go after the carriers themselves, the consumer groups are taking aim at the FCC to help stop this practice. A good example is the Rebtel case, in which Verizon rejected the short code since it would have been used for an international call-back scheme that would cut Verizon out of international voice revenues. Can anybody blame Verizon for this? If I was a Verizon shareholder and found out that Verizon approved this short code I would be pretty pissed.  Thus, it’s definitely wise for these consumer groups to pursue the FCC rather than the carriers directly.

Frankly though, the benefits of regulatory oversight into the short code industry are vastly outweighed by the pitfalls. Most of the folks at GoLive! Mobile come from a telecom background with extensive experience in dealing with regulators. Anybody who doesn’t have similar experience should realize the golden rule of the FCC — give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. If the FCC were to establish some sort of oversight into short code approval policies of the carriers, the next steps will be establishing further standards and penalties around the process.  These will only serve to deter the carriers from supporting and expanding upon their current short code offerings, and also raise prices for provisioning and aggregator messaging rates.  

Perhaps one of the most interesting projects we’ve been a part of is our recent collaboration with the FBI to provide a text messaging platform for citizens to send in anonymous tips. The initiative should launch some time in the first quarter of ‘08, and will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

The FBI currently offers a number of ways for citizens to send in anonymous tips, so it is logical that they are pursuing a mobile options considering cell phones are the primary form of communication for a large percentage of Americans.

Will the public use it though?

While that remains to be seen, in my opinion it’s inevitable that the public will eventually be using this method of reporting an anonymous tip.

We have quietly launched our “Matrix” Mobile Application Server over the past few weeks, primarily filling backlog orders from existing clients which were made while we were finishing development. I blogged about Matrix a while ago while we were still in development so please read that post for further details. Matrix is essentially a Mobile Application Server for the hosting, distribution, and billing for mobile apps written for J2ME/Windows Mobile/Symbian/BlackBerry/etc. The product targets mobile application developers and mobile game developers who are creating multiple versions or “ports” of an application to support the various mobile OS’s, standards, and handsets.

While we’ve done various mobile game and mobile app projects on a one-off basis, Matrix is a true, turn-key solution for this segment. We’ve been working on it for almost a year now..

To learn more about the Matrix Mobile Application Server check out our website:

http://www.golivemobile.com/matrix.htm

Well…I guess everyone with half a brain expected AT&T to perpetually push back the OPPC launch date as they have been doing. I blogged about OPPC a couple months ago if you’re not sure what I’m talking about. The bottom line here is, OPPC is a tremendous undertaking and has encountered some significant hiccups which AT&T is working out.

There has been problems with duplicate subscriptions that AT&T has recently addressed, as well as multitudes of carrier/aggregator provisioning errors and connectivity issues.

Reliability of the START notifications which notify of successful double opt-in are also of grave concern around the industry…while content provider control has gone down dramatically, there is no doubt that the system poses significant protections and enhancements to AT&T subscribers and the industry at large.

Mobile search has garnered a ton of Venture Capital investment over the past year, and we at GoLive! Mobile have seen a definite explosion in the number of clients pursuing applications in this space. We have powered over a dozen mobile search applications in the past year — large and small, premium-rate and standard-rate, WAP based and SMS based, and on and on. Heck, we even launched our own mobile search application to demonstrate the power of SMS-2-WAP as the ultimate mobile search combination.

Of all the services GoLive! is powering in this space, though, I must say that my favorite is Johnn27.com — a pure SMS based mobile search application which employs college students around the country to answer your search queries for $1.99 per query. The service provides spectacularly human and useful responses, unlike the automated services such as Google SMS.

You can try Johnny27 by texting any question to the short code 272727.

Well our friends at Verizon have certainly shocked the world by announcing plans for an open network by late 2008.  Traditionally known as the most walled of walled gardens, Verizon’s decision is nothing short of shocking. To me, this seems like a clear survival tactic on the part of the U.S’s second largest carrier.  The carrier has grown quite a reputation for having the worst handset selection amongst the major carriers, attributable to a very narrow-minded approach in its dealings with handset manufacturers.

There are many implications of this announcement, but since this is a GoLive! Mobile blog focusing on the mobile content industry I will focus on the one that impacts us the most — the imminent death of the BREW standard.

By opening the door for J2ME devices and developers to flood the Verizon network, Verizon is essentially saying goodbye to the BREW mobile applications standard which it has spent countless millions of dollars developing over the years.

Virtually all mobile apps are written in J2ME and then ported to BREW for Verizon support… which has been a very costly and annoying proposition for many a mobile app developer. With an abundance of J2ME devices set to launch on the VZ network next year, nobody will be paying these large sums to port to BREW anymore.

J2ME is in, BREW is out.