Wmode unveils partnership with Telus Mobility on access to wireless content

Telus Mobility will offer its subscribers access to a greater variety of wireless content in the wake of an agreement with wireless content aggregator and billing system company Wmode Inc. The partnership is key for Telus as it tries to increase the wireless data revenue portion of its overall revenue base. Giving its subscribers a broader array of content could have the potential to increase revenue.The agreement also allows Telus to get quickly to market with new types of content, games and other entertainment applications, according a company manager. "What this relationship (provides Telus) is there is a bit of a ramp-up process to plug into multiple content providers into our billing platform," explains Telus' manager of business development Darcy McNeill. Through this single relationship, the company gets access to multiple partners and it considerably shortens the launch cycle, he adds.For Wmode, this is the first of several similar agreements that it will soon be announcing. The Calgary-based company is currently involved in a large pilot project with a significant European wireless operator and the Telus agreement is only the tip of the iceberg, according to the firm. The pilot project was first revealed in an earlier interview with Report on Wireless (RoW, Feb. 19/01). Dennis Woronuk, Wmode's president and COO, is keeping details of that deal close to his chest, but hopes that the agreement will be made public before the end of the year.Woronuk explains that the unveiling of the agreement with Telus should also go a long way in convincing wireless content providers that Wmode can provide them with access to a large and growing base of wireless phone software developers. He says that there are probably 100 to 200 content providers that have told him once the company signed a deal with a carrier they would sign up to join the company's content community.The wireless content industry is experiencing a chicken and egg scenario, according to Woronuk. Content providers want to know that there is access to revenue from carriers before they sign with Wmode. On the other hand, carriers want to know that there is sufficient and compelling content in the pipe before deciding to use Wmode's ClearMode system.Success of wireless content hinges on several factorsCanada's wireless carriers are still struggling to find ways to maximize revenue potential from wireless data applications. Providing access to a broader array of games and other entertainment represents a significant opportunity. While McNeill wouldn't provide details on growth, he did say that traffic is growing.But there are still significant obstacles to the success of wireless data. Both McNeill and Woronuk say that it will take a combination of elements before wireless content will be a successful revenue generator for the wireless carriers."You're going to have to have the appropriate pricing plans so you're not spending a fortune per megabyte of data. You have to have the handsets and you have to have the content that people want to use," Woronuk tells Report on Wireless.Telus may have the edge over its competitors as it has chosen to use a pay-per-use model for its content. "Because it's not time-based, (consumers) know what they're getting up front. It's not packet-based because what in the world is a kilobyte," McNeill says.He agrees that pricing and packaging will need to evolve, but adds that newer applications and wireless platforms will also play a role. "You've got WAP 2.0 with GUI interface (graphical user interface), which will put this medium into a context that people will understand and can relate to," McNeill says. "I think when all of those things drop into place, then you'll start to see a real massive adoption that we're all looking for."

Wmode unveils partnership with Telus Mobility on access to wireless content

News | October 15, 2002

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