Operators: Adapt or die. This is the singular message of new research by global consultancy Arthur D. Little. The advance of social networking and the availability of tools that allow users to create and consume content on their own terms present mobile operators new growth opportunities. But there’s a catch before they can get the cash: They must tear down barriers, such as walled gardens, proprietary formats and prohibitive data tariffs, and learn to nurture – not neglect – their fledgling mobile communities.

“Younger Europeans are already showing their readiness to interact on the move, with 38% of them accessing email from mobile devices,” Richard Swinford, a senior manager in the Arthur D. Little Telecoms team, said in a statement. “Telecommunications businesses now need to offer access to the established web 2.0 services, for both communication and for the fulfillment of their wider social needs whilst on the move.”  In his view, the unreadiness (or unwillingness, I wonder) to satisfy this new demand comes at the expense of future revenues and will urgently need to be addressed.

What options do operators have? They can collaborate with the de facto fixed Web 2.0 companies (i.e., Flickr & Co.), or they can “face the long haul choice of building competing communities or take the reduced margin implied from partnerships with existing players.” Some operators – Vodafone and 3 included – have chosen the latter, judging from their recent deals with MySpace, Skype, Google and YouTube. However, the report concludes, “a final more stable but less growth oriented option is to opt out of the fiercely competitive service centric world and focus on pure bandwidth delivery.” Maybe being a dumb pipe isn’t such a dumb idea after all, if operators can choose their partners wisely and negotiate a fair share of the ad revenues.
Related:
—Vodafone Follows MySpace Deal By Hooking Up With YouTube
—@ 3GSM: MySpace Mobile Wants More Mobile Deals
—3 Group Debuts All-You-Can-Eat & All-You-Can-Access Broadband Offer