Post MWC summary: Eli Mahal, Flash Networks

Eli Mahal, VP Marketing for Flash Networks has digested the MWC experience and sent me over this following summary — thanks Eli!

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Having walked up and down the aisles at this year’s show and having spoken to operators, vendors, the press and the analysts, what stood out the most is well, that nothing particularly stood out at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

It appears that the mobile community has given up its quest to develop the next killer application. I feel operators today are looking for a killer theme rather than a killer app. They are looking for a unique agenda that will improve their bottom line. This agenda is no longer about voice, messaging or sophisticated billing; the new agenda is the mobile internet and mobile broadband.

Mobile operators simply want to make more money from data. Some characterize themselves as the smart pipe, others as the bit pipe, whilst others still consider them selves as ‘media’ companies. But all operators sense that their killer theme is a smart and efficient network that can deliver fast and adaptive internet to mobile devices and laptops with wireless modems. If users do embrace the internet on the go, then a tangible increase in ARPU is on the cards for operators.

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Thanks Eli! You can read Eli’s previous diary entries here, here and here.