Ericsson Mobility World chose to compare these two operators because they launched MMS services at the same time, charged their customers approximately the same fee, and are located in the same country.

However, the two operators offered entirely different service packages. Operator A sold practical services, while Operator B sold entertainment such as daily Garfield comic strip subscriptions, and picture-sharing services.

The results of the comparison study are dramatic and clearly demonstrate strong consumer interest in entertainment services.

Operator B generated four times more traffic by offering entertainment services; 65% of the MMSs were generated by consumers downloading services such as comic strips from the portal. The other 35% was generated by consumers communicating with each other, such as sending a photo to a friend.

Operator B achieved this substantial rise in traffic despite being one-third the size of Operator A. The local Ericsson team worked closely with Operator B, providing advice and applications.

The content deal between Ericsson Mobility World and Operator B worked well from the start largely because of the close, constructive relationship between the Ericsson local account team and the operator’s marketing department. This provided the all-important consumer perspective, making it easier to come up with the right combination of applications and technical solutions from the very beginning.

Kendal von Sydow