Mobile Content Value Chain

The difficulty with any new technology or economy are the proliferation of terms and acronyms. The article describes the process of delivering mobile content, charging for it and the common terms used in this process.

It is aimed at anyone creating content, music, video, pictures or games and wants it to be seen, or even bought by a mobile audience. There are three main methods of delivery mobile content – directly over IP (Internet Protocol), through a distributor or via a mobile content delivery platform. Each has it’s own advantages and disadvantages …

Content Directly over IP
There is nothing to stop anyone delivering to content to a mobile phone user by simply using the internet. Create the content, upload it onto a web server, create a WAP site and tell your mobile users the URL.
The advantage is that it is cheap, simple and quick to achieve.
The disadvantage is that it does not protect the content, there is no revenue and most significantly, mobile users rarely type URLs directly into their mobile browser. It also doesn’t take into account the compatibility issues of the many handsets and mobile operating systems.

Mobile Formats
Unlike PCs and the internet, there are many more handsets, operating systems and screen sizes available. When delivering content these need to be taken into account. For pictures, the format is a simple jpg or gif. Most handsets will manage resizing these days, so the format is not a primary issue.
When it comes to audio and video the situation is more complex. Typically video is downloaded in the 3gp format. 3GP stores video streams such as MPEG-4, H.263 or H.264, and audio streams as AMR-NB or AAC-LC formats. 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, so content is correctly sized for mobile display screens.
Music can be delivered as AAC-LC in a 3gp wrapper, however most mobile handsets can manage mp3 and is a more broadly compatible format to use.

Mobile Distributors
The second option for delivering content is via a distributor such as Player X. Unlike a direct IP delivery, the distributor will take care of all the formats, as well as finding portals to sell the content through. Typically these portals are sites run by the operators – such as Vodafone Live! Or T-Zones – offering free and paid content to their users. Whilst a portal may see millions of hits – users typically log on to the mobile web via these portals – there is no assurance of position on the portal. Operators tend to prioritise global events – such as film premiers or corporate tie ins. Other content can be buried a few pages down and may never receive any hits. There is no revenue paid in advance, and apart from the large games manufacturers there are no guarantees of download volumes.
The revenue generated from this is usually split 50:50 with the distributor, so for a £1 download the content owner will see around 20p revenue.

Content Distribution and Management Platform
Increasingly, content providers are seeing the possibilities of Direct to Consumer mobile content (D2C). With the poor reputation and user experience of the operator portals the growth of D2C is inevitable.
The revenue model for D2C is typically using Premium SMS or Reverse charge SMS. The way this works is that the user sends a text as a request from their mobile to a 5 or 6 digit shortcode number and they receive a reply, or billing message, which will deduct a fixed amount from their phone.


3GP – The standard format for mobile video. 3GP stores video streams such as MPEG-4, H.263 or H.264, and audio streams as AMR-NB or AAC-LC formats. 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, so content is correctly sized for mobile display screens.
Aggregator – in the context of SMS and PSMS, an aggregator, such as Mblox, works with the mobile networks to agree shortcodes and bulk SMS routes which are provided to mobile platforms and content providers as single IP connection through their SMS Centre.
Billing Message – see PSMS
Bulk SMS – a common term for text messages bought from aggregators/SMS Centres. These messages are bought in blocks of 1000s or many 1000s at a lower cost than those bought from networks. Bulk SMS is typically used for mobile marketing campaigns and other web-based messaging applications.
Content Platform – or sometimes referred to as a delivery platform, such as immedia24. This is software or a web-based application for managing SMS and content delivery such as handling requests from messages sent from handsets. A platform will also provide reports of messages sent and receiving and revenues earned from PSMS.

D2C – Direct to Consumer

Flat Rate Data - – see Mobile Data Charges

ICSTIS – The premium rate billing regulator, who are now renamed PhonepayPlus. All providers of PSMS must be registered with them as a service provider. They have the power to raise fines for breaches of their regulations, but only against the service provider and not the content provider – hence the service provider for the Richard and Judy Scandal, Eckoh received the fine, not Channel 4 themselves.

IP – Internet Protocol – any data that is sent or received using the internet.

J2ME – Java-based development language used for many mobile applications, especially games
MMS – Multi Media Message Service – with the advent of colour screens and phone cameras, it was developed by mobile networks as a replacement for SMS. MMS allows the user to send and receive pictures, audio and short video content (around 250k files). The cost of MMS combined with limited user need has seen a relatively small take up, with 100 million messages per month being sent in the UK (around 2% of the SMS volumes).

Mobile Data Charges – refers to mobile operator charges for accessing the internet and email. In effect, to download anything from the internet the user is charged for data. This can be as high as £7 per megabyte and is additional to a PSMS charged by the content provider. Many users are not aware of the data charges until they appear on their phone bill. Recent flat rate data charges – around £7.50 per month for 1 – 2 gig of downloads has alleviated this, but mobile users not on a flat rate plan are likely to be put off downloading content due to the high charges.

Mobile Operating Systems – There are a number of mobile operating systems used by handset manufacturers – Symbian, Windows Mobile, Ajax, Linux. There are other systems specific to certain phones such as the Blackberry and the iphone. The battle for the dominant mobile OS is likely to develop in the next 12 months and the main players will probably be Symbian, Windows Mobile and Google’s Android.

Mobile Operators – are the companies that own and operate the mobile infrastructure – in the UK they are Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Orange and 3. Operators such as Virgin Mobile lease capacity from the main operators.

Mobile Portal – an entry point into the mobile web. The mobile operators run their own portals, and is typically the first point of call for a mobile user logging on to the internet.
MSISDN – the number of a mobile phone. The MSISDN is carried in all SMS and MMS and offers an ideal way to identify a specific user. It cannot be identified when the mobile user is browsing the internet.

Ofcom – The telecoms and media regulator. Any premium rate issues will be dealt with by PhonepayPlus (ICSTIS), but Ofcom will deal with non-premium issues such as SMS spam. Their site has excellent guidance on acceptable usage.
PSMS – Premium SMS – is a message that is charged to the users phone. The charge is on receipt of a message, sometimes referred to as a reverse billing SMS. In order to comply with the regulations, the user must send a request message to a shortcode (a 5 or 6 digit number).
The price of the PSMS is determined by the shortcode number used for the message. These shortcodes are priced at 10p, 25p, 50p, 75p, £1, £1.50, £3 and £5. Billings can also be multiples of the price eg 2 x £1, where the user will receive 2 messages at £1.
Shortcode – a five or six number code for both receiving SMS from and sending Premium SMS to mobile users. Each shortcode is owned by a service provider who aggregates the number across all of the major networks. Shortcodes are country specific and cannot be sent/received outside the country of origin.

SMS – Short Message Service – an SMS is 160 characters of text and 12 characters of header (such as a reply number). Unlike email, for example, an SMS cannot carry additional header information or picture or video content. There are over 4 billion text messages sent each month in the UK – more messages than voice calls made.
SMSC – SMS Centre or gateway. An SMS centre provides a connection between the mobile networks and the internet. They will typically act as an aggregator by offering a single IP-based connection across all networks. They will also set up and get the agreements for shortcodes across the mobile operators.

Subscription/Recurring Billing – is a revenue option that allows the content provider to accept a single SMS request from a mobile user and continue to send messages monthly, weekly or even daily until an opt out or ‘STOP’ message is received. This was commonly used in the ringtone market boom as a method of maximising revenue. However stricter controls have been put in place, particularly with regard to subscription billing from under 16s.
URL Sending – a common method for delivering content by SMS. The text message will contain a URL link, which, when opened will download the content.

WAP – Wireless Application Protocol – the protocol has been widely available since 2000 and was designed to offer a simplified version of web browsing from mobile phones.
Wap Push – or Wap Push Message is a method of delivering mobile content by SMS. The Wap Push is essentially a text message with a URL to the content and configured as a Service Message. It will prompt the handset user to open the URL or download the content. Due to abuse by unscrupulous companies Wap Push can no longer be used in Premium SMS.
Wireless – it used to be the word my grandparents used for their radio! These days it general refers to wireless computer networks, or WiFi. Confusingly ‘wireless’ tends to be the term used in the states for mobile networks.

WML – Wireless Mark Up Language – similar to HTML, WML was designed to be specifically used on mobile. As mobile handsets have developed WML has become less important for delivering web-type content, with XML, compact HTML and HTML also running on many mobile browsers.

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