At first glance, this initiative had a tremendously successful outcome for the MNO. Their mobile Internet usage saw double-digit percentage growth overnight. And kept growing.

A week later, the operator announced increased usage caps for all of its data plans. No great problem here, as subscribers rapidly became new mobile social networking enthusiasts, often in their thousands each day. But certainly less revenue per MB.

In fact everyone was terribly pleased until later in the month they discovered that while overall mobile data was substantially up, their on-portal traffic had actually decreased, by more than 30 percent. And adding to that dilemma, ARPU decreased for nearly every VAS product they offered to their subscribers.

So while the social networking traffic was increasing, the mobile operator had become a dumb pipe – and found themselves dramatically exposed to churn in a competitive market. Because “m-site” social networking on network A is an identical experience on network B. And C. Or even D. Popular social networking sites are attracting millions of unique visitors to their mobile portals every month, and while mobile data usage rises, the ARPU curve – from data usage alone – is trending ever downwards. What should be an opportunity for mobile operators can very quickly become a massive problem.

To help mobile product and VAS managers meet this challenge, we devised the Locatrix (Re)Engage Workshops. Our thesis is this: mobile operators don’t need to “introduce” social networking services – their subscribers are already there. Instead, they need to formulate and execute strategies which provide a re-engagement path, via and through existing social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter and Friendster.

Delivered in either half-day and full-day seminar formats, our (Re)Engage Workshops help mobile product managers and network executives better understand the demographic mix of social networking users, and teaches them how to create a subscriber engagement strategy by working within the social networking paradigm. Creating, for example, a framework for injecting your mobile brand and VAS solutions into social networking portals, and helping your customers promote their favorite services to their friends. And while we of course present engagement examples based on Locatrix solutions and services, there is no ongoing commercial obligation from the (Re)Engage workshop – just an opportunity to learn and refresh your strategies for leveraging mobile social networking within your subscriber base. And (Re)Engaging with your customers!

There’s more information about the Locatrix (Re)Engage Workshops on our website, but for a limited time we are offering a free half-day (Re)Engage Workshop to qualifying operators who are readers of this newsletter: simply mention “Position Update” when you contact us, or use this special e-mail link.

This month we are profiling Locatrix/XLF, our hosted enabler-access and application framework solution. Mobile “enablers” – network elements that provide location, subscriber identity and profile, SMS/MMS messaging and charging – are powerful network assets that can create tremendous value for an operator and their subscribers, through facilitating personalized, interactive and monetizable consumer experiences.

While these enablers of course exist in mobile networks, the cost of opening them up for access by mobile application developers, either directly or via middleware or some sort of service delivery platform (SDP) can be an expensive proposition. We’ve seen VAS business cases shot down because of extensive capital expense requirements, or through provisioning and management costs that make consumer services commercially unviable.

That’s why we’re offering Locatrix/XLF to mobile operators as a hosted, capex-free solution; as the foundation for our consumer applications (friend finder, family minder, location-enhanced marketing and social networking) we’ve already proven the value in enabling multiple applications utilising the same enabler access framework. And by encapsulating the business logic – per-event charging, subscriptions, trial periods and usage caps – within the framework, operators can also launch more “revenue-safe” initiatives, targeted at specifically focused subscriber demographics. We’re also participating in the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative to ensure compliance with the relevant industry standards.

The Locatrix/XLF hosted solution reduces both costs and time-to-market, meaning our customer can design and launch VAS solutions faster, and realise ARPU growth sooner. In one case we’re reducing a six-month initiative cycle (from concept to launch) to just six weeks.

In the current mobile market environment, we believe that operators will be under increasing pressure to both launch new services and reduce capital spending.  Locatrix/XLF is our argument that the two objectives need not be mutually exclusive.  Send me a note if you are interested in exploring Locatrix/XLF further.

Now, to be clear, I’m a fan of Google’s mobile initiatives.  Google Maps works great on a GPS-equipped device (I’ve used it on both Nokia N95′s and now the 9000 Bold), and in December 2007 when they launched their cellID capability I personally believed it signified a “sunrise” moment in our industry, as folks began to realise that well, approximate locations were useful things.

(A quick note of historical value: Locatrix piloted handset-based cellID applications using active cell transfers on the onboard GSM radio to signal movement in 2004, in a pilot with Vodafone Australia, hence the “catch-up” title).

However, as a friend finder, Latitude has some limitations: the other side has to have Google Maps, you can’t get real-time locations from friends unless they are also using Google Maps, and the implemented privacy restrictions are, well, minor.  Not to mention that (and yes, I get the “Do no evil” mantra) all this data about location is ending up somewhere, somehow for an advertising play….

As a company, Locatrix focuses on solutions that let our operator partners safely expose location to their subscribers, and we were pleased that Telstra took the initiative to make some public comments around Latitude, and the importance of consumer education and control – features we provide in Whereis® Everyone (our solution, Telstra’s brand).

You can listen to Telstra’s Mario Davoli on Google Latitude and Whereis Everyone on the Nowwearetalking.com.au blog site.