Reactive Data to Proactive Intelligence-the Way forward for Telcos

Earlier this year Wall Street valued Facebook over hundred billion dollars. Google, one of the biggest giants of Internet, earns close to ten billion dollars in a quarter year. So what makes Facebook or Google so valuable is-the data assets that these companies have compiled over years coupled with analytics providing insights in to their user's lives. Traditionally telcos have been providing services such as voice, messaging, data and other value added services to customers globally. While providing these services telcos have built a mountain of information generated by subscriber's usage. The data asset that telcos have accumulated is complete with respect of subscriber's personal information such as gender, age, location, demographics etc. Are there real opportunities for telecom operators to cash in the existing data assets?

In this paper we have represented data monetization opportunities for telcos in the 2×2 matrix, with existing and new data assets along the vertical axis and downstream and upstream customers along the horizontal axis. Quadrant formed between existing data assets and downstream customers will have opportunities such as CEM, tariff plans, cross-selling and customer microsegmentation. Opportunities in other quadrant, formed between new data assets and upstream customers, will be offerings in sectors such as healthcare, transportation, insurance and government. This paper creates a framework for telcos to understand their current position and strategize their desired position as part of recommendation. It also touches upon the challenges of using user data and the legal policies around it.