The Future of MNOs – Utility Cash Cows or Mobile Service Stars?

In the age of app stores and OTT services, mobile network operators have struggled to develop new revenue streams in the provision of content and services. Here, Mike Bradbury, CEO of billing and payments consultancy, T-Exec argues that MNOs need a cultural over-haul to compete in the mobile services economy. It is accepted fact that mobile is the dominant technological force in 2014. Latest statistics show that smartphone penetration sits at 71%, 53% of internet access is from a mobile, m-commerce accounts for 27% of all online shopping, 71% of all social media access is via a mobile handset …

Waving but not paying – has Apple Pay put Weve on the ropes?

This week, mobile operator JV, Weve, announced that it was scaling back its plans to launch and support its mobile wallet just as Apple prepares to move in to the NFC enabled, wave and pay market with its iPhone 6 and Apple Pay.  With iPhones accounting for roughly one third of the UK smartphone users the move drastically reduces Weve's addressable market which the Centre for Economics and Business Research forecasts will be worth £14.2bn in 2018. Perhaps operators will focus their efforts on Android smartphones, yet Google launched its own NFC mobile wallet service in the US in 2011 in the …