Mobile business special-report 11 2016

INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY 30 / 10 / 2016#0413raconteur.net
Mobile is a powerful and fast-moving force
transforming the way we live and work
From 1G to 4G and beyond, the mobile phone
has rapidly evolved to change lives forever
Mobile technology impacts most, if not all, walks
of working life, but some more than others
ARE WE A NATION OF
‘SCREENAGE’ JUNKIES?
DISRUPTIVE POTENTIAL
OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
MOBILE MOMENTS THAT
CHANGED THE WORLD
EXECUTIVE JOBS MOBILE
WILL AFFECT MOST
As boundaries between work and leisure blur, smartphones are always in our lives
03 04 06 08
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SIMON BROOKE
Award-winning
freelance journalist,
who writes for a num-
ber of international
publications, he
specialises in lifestyle
trends, health, busi-
ness and marketing.
GABRIELLA
GRIFFITH
Freelance business
journalist and as-
sistant commercial
editor at News UK,
she has also worked
for City A.M. and
Management Today.
BENJAMIN CHIOU
Business and eco-
nomics writer, his
specialisms include
a range of topics
including financial
markets and com-
modities.
GIDEON SPANIER
Head of media at
advertising maga-
zine Campaign and
Broadcasting Press
Guild chairman, he
writes about busi-
ness for the London
Evening Standard
and The Times.
NICK EASEN
Award-winning free-
lance journalist and
broadcaster, he pro-
duces for BBC World
News and writes on
business, economics,
science, technology
and travel.
TIM STAFFORD
Freelance journal-
ist, specialising
in business and
management, he
was launch editor
of CEB Blogs.
FINBARR
TOESLAND
Freelance journal-
ist, he specialises
in technology,
business and
economic issues,
and contributes
to a wide range of
publications.
MARK FRARY
Science, technology
and business writer
with eight published
books, he speaks reg-
ularly on technology
and futurology at
conferences.
DISTRIBUTED IN
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BUSINESS CULTURE FINANCE HEALTHCARE LIFESTYLE SUSTAINABILITY TECHNOLOGY INFOGRAPHICS raconteur.net/mobile-business-2017
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CONTRIBUTORS
SMARTPHONE PENETRATION UK SMARTPHONE FORECAST
Source: eMarketer 2016
UK must move
faster to keep
up with mobile
Although a frontrunner in mobile development,
the UK is now showing signs of fatigue and
falling behind global competition
OVERVIEW
NICK EASEN
B
y any measure the UK has one
of the most advanced and de-
veloped mobile phone markets
on the planet. Walk up any high
street and there’s no doubt that we have
an insatiable desire to interact and trans-
act on our handsets.
The UK is ranked in the top ten globally
when it comes to harnessing information
technology, according to a recent ranking
by the World Economic Forum. It helps
that the telecoms market is one of the most
competitive and regulated in the world.
“The UK’s smartphone appetite for faster
mobile speeds continues to grow,” says
Derek McManus, chief operating officer at
O2. “Four in every five adults own a smart-
phone and 4G data
usage has almost dou-
bled in the last year.
The consumer appe-
tite and growth oppor-
tunity are clear.”
MarketssuchasSouth
Korea, Japan and the
United States have long
led the global race, but
for some measures the
UK ranks favourably.
For example, access to phone banking is far
more advanced here than across the Atlan-
tic. The UK also has some of the world’s fast-
est mobile internet speeds, according to a
report by content delivery company Akamai.
“We know that 92 per cent of British mil-
lennials now view their mobile as their
primary device for accessing the inter-
net,” says Chris Worle, digital strategy
director at investment firm Hargreaves
Lansdown. “The UK has one of the most
sophisticated markets in the world.”
And when squared up to Continental
Europeans, the UK is a 600-pound goril-
la – it’s one of the largest in terms of sub-
scribers, as well as total revenues, and has
some of the most competitive pricing. It is
also one of the most advanced in terms of
roll-out and up-take of 4G. So the market
should be in rude health, right?
Not quite. While brand names have
evolved over three decades alongside
handsets, the big players driving the
market have largely stayed the same. Four
operators dominate – BT’s mobile busi-
ness EE, Vodafone, Hutchison’s Three and
Telefonica’s O2 – all heavyweights on the
international scene.
“Had the merger earlier this year be-
tween O2 and Three not been stopped by
the EU, things could have been very dif-
ferent,” explains Ernest Doku, telecoms
expert at uSwitch.com. “Austria reduced
its operators from four to three and prices
there soared by up to 30 per cent.”
Competition is fantastic for consumers,
but it’s not great for a sector that’s been
consolidating globally because of price
squeezes. The UK is also highly saturat-
ed, for instance mobile penetration in the
US and Europe’s big five countries has
reached 91 per cent,
according to research
by Kantar, and now
ageing infrastructure
dogs the sector.
“The return on in-
vestment for mobile
operators is meagre
to say the least.
This needs to be ad-
dressed,” says Simon
Beresford-Wylie, chief
executive of Arqiva, providers of mobile
infrastructure.
Telecoms companies have also com-
plained about BT’s lack of investment in
infrastructure. Many were disappointed
when the regulator did not force it to sell
its Openreach business outright. This
company owns the pipes and cables that
connect nearly all businesses and homes
in the UK.
“The regulator wants BT to place more em-
phasis on improving the network, but this
will be costly,” says Helal Miah, investment
research analyst at the Share Centre.
The UK was at the forefront of deploy-
ments in 2G and 3G. When 4G came along,
the country lagged behind South Korea,
Japan and the US. Many European mar-
kets already have 100 per cent coverage;
the UK does not.
The regulator wants BT
to place more emphasis
on improving the
network, but this will
be costly
South Korea will also unveil the next
generation 5G in 2018 to coincide with the
Winter Olympics. In the UK, it is unlikely to
be launched until at least 2020.
“5G will be important since it has the
potential to support a whole new range of
applications and industries. If the UK is
serious about having a vibrant digital econ-
omy, being a 5G leader is a must,” says Mr
Beresford-Wylie.
“This will be a basic competitive require-
ment for advanced economies. If we’re
not a 5G leader, there will be negative
consequences for the economy and
our global competitiveness.”
Yet who is going to utilise these
services? At present the con-
suming public is suffering from
handset fatigue, which shows
few signs of abating. This not
just a national issue but something
with global impact, which is keenly
felt in the UK where Apple and Sam-
sung dominate.
Globally mobile services are now becom-
ing more like other utility services and
therefore as time progresses the consumer
is increasingly differentiating contracts in
terms of price. “Let’s hope that we don’t end
up with a mobile market that resembles the
supermarket sector,” says Mr Miah.
Some providers have now made strides
towards new payment structures, sepa-
rating airtime from handset costs, for in-
stance. “But we’re some way from a truly
value-driven market in terms of what cus-
tomers are getting for their money in a Eu-
ropean context,” says Mr Doku.
One of the biggest developments in the
UK going forward will be the increasing
uptake of multi-play services, broadband
internet, television and telephone with
mobile thrown in, also called quad-play.
Consumers are used to separate suppli-
ers, but this situation is changing. “Con-
vergence is key and what that means for
pricing discounts,” says Guy Peddy, head
of European telecoms research at Mac-
quarie Group.
The question is whether fast-growing
and profitable mobile services should
subsidise fixed lines or ageing infra-
structure. “The main challenges facing
operators will also be maintaining voice
prices anywhere close to current levels in
this multi-play environment,” explains
Dr Windsor Holden, head of forecasting at
Juniper Research.
Making the UK’s mobile sector work
and pay in the years to come could be a
tricky business.
Share this article online via
raconteur.net
If we’re not a 5G leader,
there will be negative
consequences for the
economy and our global
competitiveness
Penetration is the percentage of mobile users who own a smartphone
Globalsmartphoneusers(bn)
Penetrationrate
47.9m
people in the UK are
expected to have a
smartphone in 2020, up
from 38 million in 2015
86%
of UK mobile users use
a smartphone
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Global smartphone users (bn) Global penetration rate UK penetration rate
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
3.0
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
2.0
1.0

MOBILE BUSINESS raconteur.net2 RACONTEUR30 / 10 / 2016
Ms Robinson of M&C Saatchi Mobile be-
lieves annoying, interruptive ads are the
single biggest “frustration” for consum-
ers and this has driven the adoption of
ad-blocking. Despite the efforts of repu-
table, leading companies to clean up the
mobile ecosystem, she warns: “Unfor-
tunately, there have been an increasing
number of rogue ad players looking to
monetise by duping consumers into un-
intended engagement.”
She says it is not difficult to give people
what they want. Being able to skip ads and
being able to stop ads that slow page-load-
ing are the top priorities for consumers,
according to Ms Robinson. “This demon-
strates that there is still a lot of work to do
on the basics,” she says. “Advertisers need
to understand that you can’t just repurpose
print or digital ads for mobile; you need to
design for the screen and most importantly
for the consumer.”
Mr Clarkson of Yahoo agrees. “I think
that ad delivery and experience are more
important than targeting when it comes
to creating better consumer feeling to-
wards ads,” he says. “If the ad experience
is good, clean and non-interruptive, and
the targeting is relevant, consumers are
happy to accept the ads.”
Mr Franks says creating relevant, per-
sonalised advertising can work, but it
must be done with care. “Mobile is a much
more personal device and therefore the
risk of getting advertising wrong can be
higher,” he says, noting the European
Union is bringing in tougher rules, called
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
raconteur.net
Can marketers halt the
rise of the ad-blockers?
Mobile marketers, facing the prospect of ad-blockers obliterating
their message from smartphone screens, must find a way to win
back consumers fed up with irrelevant or intrusive advertising
AD-BLOCKING
GIDEON SPANIER
M
arketers face a dilemma
about mobile. The smart-
phone has become the pri-
mary screen for consumers,
so brands have been investing billions
of pounds in mobile advertising to reach
their target audiences. But because the
phone is such an intimate, personal me-
dium also poses a huge challenge as con-
sumers have become increasingly resist-
ant to the growing number of marketing
messages they are receiving.
The backlash against intrusive ads has
driven a surge in ad-blocking on both
desktop computers and mobile in the
last 18 months, and forced brands, ad-
vertising agencies and telecom firms to
reconsider what marketing will work best
on mobile.
The media industry’s hope is that a more
selective, relevant and personalised ap-
proach will appeal to consumers, rather
than bombarding them with irrelevant or
intrusive messages that slow page-load
times and eat up their data allowance.
Mobile advertising continues to grow
rapidly. Global revenues almost dou-
bled last year to $53 billion, according to
Zenith, a media-buying agency, which
forecasts they should more than double
again to reach $134 billion in 2018.
Yet the signs are that ad-blocking is still
on the rise. “The main trend over the last
year has been the shift of ad-blocking from
desktop to mobile,” says Robert Franks,
managing director of commerce at the
mobile phone giant O2 UK. “But adoption of
ad-blocking in North America and Europe
lags other continents, which is interest-
ing considering high levels of smartphone
adoption [in the West].”
Libby Robinson, Europe, Middle East
and Africa managing director of ad agency
M&C Saatchi Mobile, says: “China, India
and Indonesia are leading the charge with
the highest number of ad-blocking brows-
ers used globally.” She cites eMarketer data
that shows 5.8 per cent of UK internet users
are using ad-blockers on mobile compared
with 21 per cent worldwide.
Stuart Bowden, global strategy officer at
media-buying agency MEC, says Google
and Facebook, the two biggest platforms
for mobile advertising, have been able to
fend off the threat of ad-blockers because
their mobile apps are “walled gardens”
where blocking technology largely does
not work.
“That means the effect of ad-blocking
is focused on their weaker, more tradi-
tional, open mobile web competitors,”
says Mr Bowden. “Many of these sites re-
spond by trying to increase the amount
of ad units on their mobile pages, which
just exacerbates the problem and drives
more ad-blocking.” The ad overload can
be “gruesome”, he warns.
Nigel Clarkson, UK managing director of
Yahoo, believes the adoption of ad-block-
ers may be stabilising as smart publishers
learn from consumers’ behaviour.
“We are seeing as many as 15 per cent
of people disabling their ad-blocker for
various reasons, including their favour-
ite websites asking them to, switching
devices and not re-installing it, content
being blocked as well as the ads, and
the ad-blockers not working properly,”
he says.
Making consumers understand there is
a value exchange – that advertising helps
to fund the cost of content and if they
refuse to accept advertising then they
will have to pay – is crucial.
O2 has found most consumers still want
ad-funded services despite their mis-
givings about mobile advertising. “Ac-
cording to a survey we conducted earlier
this year, 61 per cent of consumers would
rather accept ads than pay for content
and 48 per cent wouldn’t pay for an ad
blocker,” says Mr Franks.
He goes on to cite research by the In-
ternet Advertising Bureau, the trade
body for the online ad industry, which
identified a number of reasons why users
are blocking ads. Firstly, they feel such
ads are interruptive or annoying. Sec-
ondly, they worry that ads slow down
web-browsing. Thirdly, they feel the ads
may be irrelevant. Fourthly, they have
privacy concerns.
the General Data Protection Regulation.
“But equally the opportunity is far great-
er for richer, more immersive experience,
if advertisers have the right permissions
and can leverage the sensors on the device
to offer an amazing experience.”
He explains how Weve, O2’s mobile ad-
vertising platform, has created mobile ad
campaigns for leading automotive brands
that utilise the gyroscope in the phone to
enable consumers to have a 360-degree
look around the inside of a new model
of car to promote its launch – an in-
novative and highly engaging form of
mobile marketing.
Mr Clarkson is also optimistic and re-
jects the suggestion that the smartphone
screen is too intimate and personal to
work for most advertising. “Quite the
opposite,” he declares. “A mobile screen
held up to eye level has a similar arc of
vision to being sat ten feet away from
your wall-mounted television.
“The personal nature of the screen
means deeper engagement and the abil-
ity to touch, scroll, and control ads is a
far better tool for creatives and clients to
play with. The bigger challenge is getting
creative teams to think about mobile ex-
periences differently to other screens, for
example making vertical video content
which sits better in mobile.” A ten-sec-
ond clip might work better on mobile
than a classic, thirty-second TV spot, says
Mr Clarkson.
Mr Bowden says the media and market-
ing industry needs to challenge itself to be
far more radical in the way it uses mobile.
While Mr Clarkson believes the rise of
“native” advertising, particularly video,
which blends in with content and is not
interruptive, is the way forward.
New technological opportunities, which
are likely to emerge in the near-future,
excite Mr Franks. “Augmented reality has
the potential to deliver a truly engaging
experience,” he says, recalling the recent
craze for mobile game Pokémon GO. “An-
other interesting development is ‘cross-
screen’ where advertising can be deliv-
ered on different devices that consumers
are using.”
The so-called internet of things, which
will mean we can control household ap-
pliances and cars from our phones, opens
up other marketing opportunities.
Whatever the future for mobile, we can
be sure we will be spending a lot of time
with portable devices. And where people
go, advertisers follow.
MOST ANNOYING TYPES OF MOBILE ADS
Source: Hubspot 2016
RikkiChan/Unsplash
PERCENTAGE OF EUROPEAN AND US ONLINE USERS WHO RATED THE FOLLOWING 'HIGHLY ANNOYING'
5.8%
48%
of UK internet users are
using ad-blockers on
mobile, compared with
21 per cent worldwide
wouldn’t pay for
an ad-blocker
Source:
eMarketer
61%
of UK consumers would
rather accept ads than
pay for content
Source:
O2
73% 65% 49% 40% 39% 31%
Ads that
pop over my
entire screen
Ads that seem to
follow me from
my computer to
my phone
Video ads
in games
Video ads
on YouTube
Video ads
in general
Text-based
ads
"M
obile first” is the buzz phrase
that is driving advertising
strategy around the world as
brands and advertisers look to make this
rapidly growing channel central to their
marketing programmes.
"The appeal of mobile is obvious,"
says Richard Nunn, chief revenue of-
ficer at RhythmOne, an online adver-
tising company that connects digital
audiences with brands through premi-
um content across devices. He cites a
recent report by Deloitte that revealed
Americans checked their phones on av-
erage 48 times a day last year, up from
33 times, while those in the 18 to 24 age
bracket did so on 74 occasions daily.
“It’s largely about scale,” he says. “There
are around two billion devices globally and
so mobile is the best way for advertisers
to reach eyeballs. Improved targeting is
also positioning mobile as the most pow-
erful of all advertising channels.
“You can target by device, by operat-
ing system and by time of day, as well as
a variety of audience demographics and
purchase behaviours. Couple this with the
location-based targeting unique to mobile
and you have a powerful combination.”
"However, advertisers are just be-
ginning to grasp the full potential of
mobile," Mr Nunn argues. He points to
research from Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers (KPCB), which shows that while
consumers spend about around 25 per
cent of their screen time on mobile
media, advertisers are only allocating
around 12 per cent of their advertising
budget to this channel.
Compare this with print, which rep-
resents a mere 4 per cent of media con-
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
GETTING MOBILE
MARKETING MOVING
Mobile is growing fast, but it’s still underutilised. So how can advertisers and
publishers make the most of this exciting and highly effective channel?
sumption time, but swallows up 16 per
cent of advertising spend. KPCB calcu-
lates this gap represents a $22-billion op-
portunity for advertisers to align better
with consumer consumption habits.
So what should advertisers be doing
to make the most of mobile’s vast power
to reach consumers? Firstly, they have
to think creatively. “It’s about using var-
ious mobile ad formats, including video,
and leveraging the native features of the
device, like the accelerometer, to create
entertaining and informative advertis-
ing experiences that will appeal to au-
diences and make them want to engage
with it,” says Mr Nunn.
The most effective mobile advertising, he
explains, is a fusion of art and science. “The
art is the creativity – the best creative ad-
vertising ideas really resonate. The science
is the data - the ability to precisely segment
and target your audience” he says.
Secondly, brands need to exploit the
full potential of mobile data to create
more dynamic ad experiences. A cam-
paign could, for instance, not only hone
in on the appropriate demographic, but
also take into account the time of day to
serve a consumer an ad that features the
sun setting out the window. It could also
leverage weather inputs. When weath-
er forecasts predict rain, a brand could
use this to serve an ad that, for example,
encourages consumers to snuggle up in-
doors with a new down comforter.
Mobile, by its very definition, allows
advertisers to target consumers better
by using geolocation. “It’s possible to tell,
for instance, that I am a frequent consum-
er at a quick-service restaurant,” explains
Mr Nunn. “This information could be used
in conjunction with my geolocation and
competitor chains could target me with a
special offer when I am in the vicinity of
one of their locations.”
Thirdly, mobile-infused influencer
marketing offers significant and growing
potential, especially for younger audi-
ences. Influencer marketing is expected
to grow to $1 billion by 2018, according
to user-generated media research com-
pany Technorati. Meanwhile, market
research company eMarketer calculates
that US native display advertising spend-
ing is projected to surpass traditional dis-
play ad spending this year before going
on to grow at double-digit rates for the
next few years.
“Imagine that you’re an olive oil man-
ufacturer,” says Mr Nunn. “You could ap-
proach an influencer, such as a chef with
a well-known social presence, and pay
them to create video content for mobile
in which they use your olive oil in a variety
of recipes they prepare.”
Influencer content is powerful and im-
pactful. However, the real benefit comes
from amplification. An influencer might
have two million followers, but by build-
ing a look-alike profile, we can create an
audience-based targeting segment and
use programmatic exchanges to amplify
distribution among consumers with simi-
lar characteristics. These people will then
receive an ad that features some of the
best influencer-created content, thereby
extending the reach of the campaign.
Fourthly, creating engaging, absorb-
ing mobile-optimised video and serving
it to carefully segmented audiences is
also essential. Agencies should com-
bine creativity with targeting. “For
many demographic groups, nearly all
video consumption occurs on a mobile
device,” says Mr Nunn. “If you are an
apparel retailer, mobile may be the ide-
al vehicle to reach different consumer
segments with highly bespoke video
content featuring look-books of age
and gender-specific fashions. Video
is the highest performing and highest
growth area on mobile.”
Finally, in order to target audienc-
es most accurately and to exploit the
huge benefits of scale that mobile of-
fers, advertisers need to embrace pro-
grammatic. RhythmOne’s programmatic
exchange RhythmMax, for example, pro-
vides a turnkey platform that connects
publishers with advertisers in an auc-
tion-based environment, with transac-
tions being made in the space of just 120
milliseconds around the globe 24/7. In
this way, programmatic can help brands
scale their mobile campaigns efficiently.
Putting together these five elements
will help brands and advertisers to take
advantage of mobile’s unique potential to
reach and engage audiences.
However, the scope of mobile is con-
stantly being extended, according to Mr
Nunn. Big data, wearables and the inter-
net of things are among the innovations
that are already coming online, as is vir-
tual reality, which allows a mobile phone
user to “visit” a virtual store and view it in
360 degrees.
“There’s so much potential,” he says.
“It’s those brands and advertisers that
can exploit and then co-ordinate all these
exciting elements to get a single, accu-
rate view of the customer that will reap
the rewards.”
For more information please visit
www.rhythmone.com
Source: Advertising spend based on IAB data for full year 2015. ~$22BN opportunity calculated assuming mobile
ad spend share equal its respective time spent share. Time spent share data based on eMarketer 4/16. Excludes
out-of-home, video game and cinema advertising
TIME SPENT IN MOBILE V MOBILE ADVERTISING SPEND
UNITED STATES 2015
Total internet ad spend = $60BN
of which mobile ad spend = $21BN
Time spent
Ad spend
25%
12%
~$22BN
opportunity
Advertisers are just
beginning to grasp the full
potential of mobile
01BE CREATIVE
Use the unique features of mobile
devices to create imaginative,
engaging campaigns.
02ENSURE TARGETING
IS ACCURATE
Make the most of location based
geo-targeting and user data.
03EXPLOIT INFLUENCER AND
CONTENT MARKETING
Use the reach of mobile in conjunc-
tion with social programmes to am-
plify distribution of branded content.
04USE VIDEO CONTENT
Video is highly attractive to mobile
audiences and searches for video
content are growing faster than
text and static images.
05ADOPT PROGRAMMATIC
SCALE AND DELIVERY TO
IMPROVE AUDIENCE TARGETING
Cross-device targeting can help to
put mobile at the centre of the cus-
tomer journey.
FIVE WAYS TO GET
YOUR MOBILE MOVING
Richard Nunn
Chief revenue officer
RhythmOne

30 / 10 / 2016RACONTEUR raconteur.net 3MOBILE BUSINESS
based platform for collaboration called
Workplace by Facebook. The social media
giant has been using the system inter-
nally for a number of years and started
testing the service with a thousand com-
panies, including Starbucks, Danone,
Oxfam and Booking.com, in countries
around the world a year ago.
Workplace includes the Newsfeed, Chat
and Group features familiar to users of
the personal version of Facebook, but
also new features such as analytics and
single sign-on with enterprise IT sys-
tems. There are also multi-company
groups, enabling companies in supply
chains, for example, to collaborate in the
mobile environment.
Waitrose is one of a number of compa-
nies recognising that smartphones have
a key role to play in the workplace. Over
the summer it rolled out its Quick Check
Are we a nation of ‘screenage’ junkies?
As the internet and social media intermingle with work and leisure time, smartphones seem always to be in our lives
MOBILE JUNKIES
MARK FRARY
H
ow often do you check your
smartphone a day? Most peo-
ple tell researchers it averages
between 20 and 30 times. Yet
what shocks people is that when their mo-
bile phone usage is actually monitored,
the number is more like 85 times a day.
Sally Andrews of Nottingham Trent
University was one of the first research-
ers to measure phone usage, not by
asking users themselves, but by using
technology to monitor when the screen
switched on and off.
“It was a bit of a shocker for some to be told
that they were using their phones for up to
half of a working day,” says Dr Andrews.
“Our subjects didn’t really believe it.”
She says increasing smartphone use is
in part down to a blending of the bounda-
ries between working and private lives as
some companies now expect employees
to be at the end of a text or e-mail 24/7,
throwing the traditional nine to five out
the window. At the same time, individ-
uals are now beginning to think that it is
perfectly acceptable to check their social
media messages in the office.
Dr Andrews’ study monitored people
over the course of 14 days, both day and
night, and for each subject they created a
“barcode” plotting usage.
Drilling into the data in more depth, the
team showed that the average amount of
time spent on the phone was more than
five hours. Over half the incidences of
using the phone were less than 30 sec-
onds in distraction, suggesting subcon-
scious checking for new messages or re-
acting to notifications.
So should mobile usage in the work-
place be discouraged? The jury is out on
whether using a smartphone boosts or
saps productivity.
Research carried out by Frost & Sullivan
and paid for by smartphone manufac-
turer Samsung of 500 executives found
that respondents believed they gained
an hour in both work and personal time
from using smartphones. The research
claimed that productivity among these
executives had increased by 34 per cent.
By contrast, a survey of 2,186 human re-
source professionals for CareerBuilder in
early-2016 found that one in five believed
their workers were productive for less
than five hours a day. Some 55 per cent of
employers said employee mobile phone
use was the culprit.
Rosemary Haefner, chief human re-
sources officer at CareerBuilder, says:
“While we need to be connected to devic-
es for work, we’re also a click away from
alluring distractions from our personal
lives like social media and various other
apps. The connectivity conundrum isn’t
necessarily a bad thing, but it needs to
be managed. Have an open dialogue with
employees about tech distractions. Ac-
knowledge their existence and discuss
challenges and solutions to keeping pro-
ductivity up.”
In some of the most recent research into
this area, Cary Stothart and colleagues at
Florida State University found that just
receiving notifications was detrimental.
The team asked participants in a study to
carry out an attention-demanding com-
puter task. Some of these were interrupt-
ed by a mobile phone call, some with a
text and some were not disturbed.
The authors of the research paper say:
“Although these notifications are gener-
ally short in duration, they can prompt
task-irrelevant thoughts or mind-wan-
dering, which has been shown to damage
task performance. Cellular phone no-
tifications alone significantly disrupt
performance on an attention-demand-
ing task, even when participants do not
directly interact with a mobile device
during the task.”
With people checking their phones 85
times a day on average, the obvious question
to ask is whether we are addicted to them.
Telecoms regulator Ofcom carries out re-
search into device and internet usage every
year in its Communications Market Report.
In an indication of what we might
expect in years to come, younger people
are revealed as spending far more time on
their smartphones (five hours a day) than
the average two hours. This age group
is also better at multitasking, such as
sending messages while simultaneous-
ly watching television, cramming in 13
hours and 11 minutes of media and com-
munications activity into 8 hours and 56
minutes of actual time on their devices.
The “screenager” generation is certainly
growing up.
Ofcom’s research shows that mobile
phones are increasingly encroaching on
our working lives with most saying they
have increased the flexibility of working
life, but no doubt meaning that is harder
than ever to switch off.
The 2016 Ofcom report says adult users in
the UK are spending an average of one day
a week online. Three out of five internet
users admitted they considered themselves
hooked on their device while just over a
third said they found it hard to disconnect.
Jane Rumble, Ofcom’s director of
market intelligence, says: “The inter-
net has revolutionised our lives for the
better. But our love affair with the web
isn’t always plain surfing and many
people admit to feeling hooked.
“So millions of us are taking a fresh look
Our love affair with
the web isn’t always
plain surfing and
many people admit to
feeling hooked
USAGE OF SMARTPHONE WHILE DOING OTHER ACTIVITIES AVERAGE TIME SPENT A DAY USING A SMARTPHONE
UK survey of people who own or have access to a smartphone only
Includes all
time spent on
a smartphone,
regardless of
multi-tasking
Source: Deloitte 2016 Source: eMarketer 2016
at the role of technology in our lives and
going on a digital detox to get a better
tech-life balance.”
Despite the potential risks to productiv-
ity, companies are actively introducing
smartphone technology to help in many
areas, such as increasing the flexibility
of their workforce, particularly as many
employers have adopted hot-desking and
allowing employees to work from home.
Unified communications (UC) systems
have been at the forefront of this trend.
Early UC systems were simply a way of
enabling calls on fixed landlines to be
forwarded to mobile devices. Now UC
systems additionally comprise elements
such as real-time staff directories to show
whether employees are present in the
office or are on the road, desktop-based
video conferencing as well as integrated
instant messaging. Such systems enable
virtual call centres, where employees are
in different locations with the consumer
blissfully unaware. They are also helping
to reduce the costs of business travel for
internal meetings.
The UC market is now forecast to be
worth $96 billion by 2023, according to
Global Market Insights, on the back of
rising adoption of mobile devices.
Rather than trying to fight the use of
smartphones in the workplace, some
companies are actively embracing it.
Facebook has recently launched a work-
raconteur.net
You will probably hear a lot about the
so-called internet of things in the next
few years. It is essentially the idea of
connecting otherwise dumb objects,
such as fridges and traffic lights, to the
internet using mobile technology to
enable them to work smarter or help
users save money.
The growth in the number of
companies working in ways that would
have been impossible without mobile
connectivity is growing by the day,
from the pregnant cows with Moocall
sensors on their tails to alert the
farmer when they are about to give
birth, to clever cars that communicate
with each other to stop them colliding,
despite what the person behind the
wheel does.
Another company that has mobile
connection at the heart of its business
model is pay-as-you-go energy
company Utilita.
The company was founded in
2004 on a hunch that smart meters
– electricity meters permanently
connected to the mobile phone
network – would be a perfect solution
for pre-pay customers.
What is attracting prepay customers
to the company is innovation in
technology, giving customers smart
meters and the ability to pay via an app
when their credit runs out rather than
racing to a shop on a rainy night to top
up their account.
Prepay customers have typically paid
a premium to buy their electricity, but
Utilita has put an end to that.
“Price is what we sell on – it will
save you a bob,” says chief executive
Bill Bullen. “The thing that gets
people is that we have applied
modern technology to the problem
and it is making the stigma of prepay
disappear. Lots of people have
prepay mobile phones so topping
up using a mobile phone is almost
anti-stigma.”
SMART WAY TO RUN A COMPANY
MOBILE ADDICTION IN THE UK
“scan as you shop” app to members of its
myWaitrose loyalty scheme on both iOS
and Android.
The app replaces the retailer’s initial
Quick Check service, which is based on
dedicated hand-held scanners and has
run for the past ten years. The new app
means customers can now scan items in
their basket with their own smartphone.
Matt Clifton, the company’s head of
retail change, says: “We know that cus-
tomers are shopping little and often,
and therefore want the experience to be
as convenient as possible. Being able to
complete a whole shopping experience
using only a smartphone means that
shoppers can scan as they go, benefit
from tailored offers, detailed product in-
formation and pay anywhere in the shop.
The dynamic world of smartphone tech-
nology means that the future capabilities
of this app are endless.”
Ultimately, the smartphone and other
mobile technologies are certain to be ev-
er-present in the workplace and younger
employees will expect to be able to use
them, even if they are unwittingly be-
coming addicted. It is incumbent on em-
ployers to make sure they are used for the
corporate good.
UNACCEPTABLE DEVICE USAGE IN
SOCIAL SITUATIONS
Source: Ofcom 2016
* Source: Ofcom 2016
** Source: Deloitte 2016
16-24 65+BY AGE GROUP
Percentage of internet users who think it is unacceptable to
use a smartphone in the following situations
INTERVALS BETWEEN THE LAST CHECK OF A SMARTPHONE ACTIVITIES CHECKED ON A SMARTPHONE IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE NIGHTUK survey of people who own or have access to a smartphone only
UK survey of people who own or have access to a smartphone only
Source: Deloitte 2016 Source: Deloitte 2016
BEFORE PREPARING FOR SLEEP
10%Immediately
27%Within 5 minutes
43%Within 15 minutes
77%Within an hour
87%Within 3 hours
AFTER WAKING UP
10%Immediately
33%Within 5 minutes
86%Within an hour
93%Within 3 hours
Check
the time
22%
Respond
to instant
messages
6%
Read work
e-mails
2%
Check instant
messages
11%
Read
news
5%
Read
a book
2%
Check
social media
notifications
9%
Play
games
4%
Respond to
work e-mails
1%
Respond
to personal
e-mails
Check
personal
e-mails
8% 3%
I don’t check
my phone
during the night
66%
Taking selfies in
public places 12% 39%
When on
public transport 8% 45%
While walking
along the street 10% 45%
Using a phone to
record videos/take
photos at a live event
45%14%
While watching
TV with others 13% 57%
While out
socialising with
friends
51%14%
During meals with
others at home 40% 76%
INTENSITYOFUSAGE(%)
INTRUSIVENESSLOW HIGH
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
201860
50
40
30
20
10
0 1 2 3 4 5
Using
public transport
Watching
a film/TV
While out
shopping
Talking to
family/friends
In a business
meeting
Crossing
the road
Eating in a
restaurant with
family/friends
Driving
Eating at
home with
family/friends
At work
Walking
Meeting
friends on a
night out
Spending
time with
family/friends
HOURS:MINUTES
0:36
0:55
1:13
Forecast
Actual
1:29
1:46
1:592:09
59%
of internet users
say they are hooked
on the device they're
most likely use to
go online*
32%
have had a friend
or relative tell
them they spend
too much
time online*
25%
have someone
bump into them
at least once a week
because they were
too busy looking at
their phone*
34%
find it hard to
disconnect from
the device*
9%
use their
smartphone
to pay for
taxi fares**
34%
of consumers
check their
smartphone during
the middle of
the night**
29%
check text
messages
first after
waking up**
12%
bump into
someone at least once
a week because they
were too busy looking
at their phone*

COMMERCIAL FEATURE
Disruptive potential
of mobile technology
Mobile is a powerful and fast-moving disruptive force which is
rapidly transforming the way we live and work
I
nnovative mobile technologies
have been responsible for dis-
rupting established companies
in virtually every industry, with
apps such as Uber and Apple Pay show-
ing the potential mobile solutions have
to change our lives for the better. The
increasingly interconnected world we
live in is creating new opportunities
for forward-thinking companies to de-
velop enterprising services that utilise
mobile technologies.
Countless technological advance-
ments that are hailed as the next big
thing fizzle out before making any
meaningful impact, but mobile still
has the ability to drive major social
and economic transformations.
It’s not just businesses that will be
changing in the wake of mobile dis-
ruption, the way we communicate
with each other and carry out day-
to-day tasks will be simpler than
ever before.
From universal translators to artifi-
cial intelligence-based personal assis-
tants, innovations that were once be-
lieved to be light years away are now
in clear sight due to the rapid pace at
which mobile is progressing. Time
will tell when these transformative
ideas come to fruition and when they
do we will wonder how we ever lived
without them.
raconteur.net
01UNIVERSALTRANSLATORS
Once thought of as only possible in sci-
ence fiction, real-time universal trans-
lators are on track to be reality in only a
few years, with both startups and interna-
tional technology companies working on
innovative solutions. The Google Trans-
late mobile app can provide two-way in-
stant speech translation in 32 languages,
although it’s not ideal for free-flowing
conversations as you have to look at the
smartphone for each translation.
New York-based Waverly Labs have
overcome this issue by creating an
in-ear device called Pilot that connects
with a dedicated smartphone app to
translate conversations instantly. At
the moment Pilot only works between
two people wearing earpieces, limiting
the situations where it could be used.
However, future generations of the
smart earpiece could listen to multiple
people speaking different languages
and still quickly translate their speech
to the user. The company has raised
more than $3.3 million on crowdfund-
ing website Indiegogo, with an expected
product release date of May 2017.
Widespread adoption of universal
translators will not be reached until the
quality of translation is virtually perfect.
The fusion of voice recognition, machine
translation and mobile technology could
soon make language barriers a thing of
the past, and completely change how we
travel and learn foreign languages.
03DISABILITY
Well-designed smartphone apps that
utilise the latest technological inno-
vations can improve the lives of people
with disabilities and enable them to
live more independently. iPhone and
Android app Be My Eyes connects vol-
unteers with blind people who need
help with everyday tasks, such as
checking the expiry date on food, via
live video chat.
Once a blind person has sent a re-
quest for help, a volunteer receives
a notification and the video connec-
tion can be made. The volunteer can
then answer the question by simply
describing what they see. Since
launching, almost 400,000 sight-
ed volunteers and 30,000 blind and
visually impaired people have used
this service.
Other innovative apps use voice rec-
ognition software to provide captions
to deaf people on video calls, letting
them “hear” what the person on the
other end of the line is saying. Mobile
app Talkitt has been life-changing for
people with motor, speech and lan-
guage disorders, such as ALS (amyo-
trophic lateral sclerosis) and cerebral
palsy, as it translates extremely hard-
to-hear speech into clear prose. No
matter what the disability, there is
likely to be a mobile solution which can
make life easier, especially for issues
around mobility.
05EARTHQUAKE WARNING
Seismologists have discovered an in-
genious mobile solution that has the po-
tential to make traditional earthquake
early-warning systems more accurate
and responsive, as well as providing
vital early warnings to people in areas
where there is no seismic network.
A small chip found in smartphones,
known as a micro-electro-mechanical
system (MEMS) accelerometer, has
been proven to detect earthquakes
that register a magnitude of more than
five. MEMS sensors were originally
intended to change the orientation of
the smartphone’s screen, but they also
have the potential to create a real-time
seismic network.
Mobile app MyShake, developed by
scientists at the University of Califor-
nia Berkeley Seismological Laborato-
ry, aims to give users an alert on their
mobile several seconds before the
earthquake hits, giving them much
needed time to take cover. Thanks to
the intelligent algorithm that under-
pins the app, everyday movements can
be easily differentiated from an actual
earthquake, so much so that in sim-
ulations the app correctly detects an
earthquake 93 per cent of the time.
The widespread use of smartphones
with MEMS sensors allows for almost
complete coverage to be achieved, with
scientists believing this technology
will soon become advanced enough
that it will be able to identify even
small earthquakes.
02PERSONAL ASSISTANTS
Artificial intelligence-based person-
al assistants are becoming more and
more advanced, with improvements
in speech-recognition technology
making them a real threat to the job
prospects of human PAs. Since the
launch of Apple’s popular AI-based
personal assistant Siri in 2011, dozens
of other high-profile tech companies
have released their own products. The
latest intelligent personal assistants
can do so much more than just check
the weather or tell the time. Viv.ai, for
example, can do everything from ar-
ranging the perfect holiday to ordering
a pizza.
“Just like a human PA, an AI PA can
adapt to your routine, habits and taste.
Themaindifferenceisthattheydon’tget
bored,” says Julien Hobeika, co-found-
er of virtual assistant Julie Desk. “AI-
based PAs work more efficiently and can
do simultaneous tasks like writing an
e-mail to thank a client for confirming a
meeting, while inserting it in the agenda
and purchasing a train ticket.”
It might take a few years to get AI
personal assistants on the same level
as humans, with Julie Desk still requir-
ing a human AI supervisor to give final
approval before any e-mail is sent, but
if machine-learning continues to de-
velop at its current pace, mobiles will
become fully fledged personal assis-
tants very soon.
04HEALTHCARE
Healthcare is perhaps one of the indus-
tries most at risk of disruption by mobile
technology, due to the massive gap be-
tween demand and supply. Far from just
offering relatively simplistic advice on
how to live a healthier lifestyle, a range
of healthcare apps are giving users
access to services previously only avail-
able at GP practices or hospitals.
Artificial intelligence-based person-
al health assistant Your.MD offers an
alternative to a physical consultation
with a doctor by using AI and ma-
chine-learning to determine the proba-
bility of a person’s condition, based on
their symptoms, personal factors and
wider medical history. “Mobile health
(mHealth) apps have the opportunity
to offer people pre-primary care sup-
port so that in many situations it won’t
be necessary to visit a doctor in the first
place,” says Matteo Berlucchi, chief ex-
ecutive of Your.MD.
While it is highly unlikely that
mHealth will make GPs redundant in
the near future, if patients embrace
these apps, they may be able to get an
accurate and rapid diagnosis wherever
they are through their mobile device.
“Assisted self-care solutions can ser-
vice the huge number of people suffer-
ing from minor ailments, allowing GPs
to have more time to dedicate to those
patients with more complex condi-
tions,” adds Mr Berlucchi.
DISRUPTION
FINBARR TOESLAND
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
M
obile network operators (MNOs)
have seen the demand for voice
and messaging services dimin-
ished by internet-based communication
platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber.
The GSMA, representing mobile opera-
tors, reports that traditional voice reve-
nues have declined by 56 per cent over
the last five years and, overall, ARPU
(average revenue per user) is down 12 per
cent. At the same time, other over-the-
top online services such as Netflix and
Spotify are selling entertainment ser-
vices directly to millions of increasingly
content-hungry consumers.
Mobile operators looking to build up
their position and meet consumers’ ap-
petite for digital services as new oppor-
tunities present themselves, should be
especially focused on emerging markets.
Close to one billion new mobile connec-
tions are forecasted over the next five
years in these regions and, according to
m-commerce technology firm Upstream,
MNOs have the opportunity to capture a
share from a potential $70-billion digital
opportunity in emerging markets. Oper-
ators have unique assets, which put them
in a prime position to engage with cus-
tomers and boost their revenues. Only if
these assets are utilised effectively, how-
ever, will they be able to make the most
of this opportunity.
BRAND EQUITY
The GSMA has found that consumers are
increasingly ready to trust mobile oper-
ators with their finances. In December
2015 there were almost as many active
mobile money accounts as active Pay-
Pal users for the first time. Marco Ver-
emis, chief executive and co-founder of
Upstream, a leading mobile commerce
platform, comments: “In emerging mar-
kets, mobile network operators deliver a
crucial service, often providing consum-
ers their only window to the world. Op-
erators, as day-to-day consumer brands,
are highly recognised and trusted.”
Research commissioned by Upstream
found that consumers in emerging mar-
PARTNERSHIPS
ARE THE KEY
How mobile operators can capture the $70-billion
digital opportunity in emerging markets
kets want more access to health (26 per
cent) and financial services (23 per cent)
on their mobile devices, as well as utilities
and tools (21 per cent), such as battery or
memory boosters and antivirus software.
Brand credibility is particularly es-
sential when offering services such as
micro-insurance or mobile antivirus
software. The GSMA reports that 70
per cent of respondents in Ghana would
rather purchase insurance from an MNO
than from an insurer. Such services are
in high demand in emerging markets.
Mr Veremis adds: “Consumers are
ready to trust their operators for ser-
vices such as micro-insurance or mo-
bile utilities, a position that places them
ahead of the curve when it comes to
broadening their portfolio of services
and ultimately increasing their ARPU.
Given the weakening performance of
traditional voice services, revenues
from digital services are critical for for-
ward-thinking mobile operators.”
CONSUMER REACH
Mobile operators enjoy unparalleled
reach in emerging markets. Mobile device
penetration in developing markets stands
at 59 per cent, according to the GSMA.
Moreover, operators typically own more
than 20 marketing channels, such as SMS,
USSD, SAT push, affording them a strong
position when it comes to engaging cus-
tomers. Owning the channels, however,
does not mean they are necessarily uti-
lised to their full potential.
Mr Veremis points out: “Every channel
requires bespoke expert optimisation for
each market and offering. Our experience
shows that partnering with mobile mar-
keting experts can improve the effective-
ness of MNO channels in customer acqui-
sition by more than 20 per cent.”
Operators also play a critical role with
respect to providing internet access in
developing markets. A recent Ericsson re-
port found that in Nigeria mobile broad-
band infrastructure is used 70 per cent
of the time when consumers access the
internet, across any device.
The prevalence of mobile broadband in
emerging markets opens up opportunities
to use MNO infrastructure such as head-
er enrichment for marketing purposes.
This technology enables user authentica-
tion over an operator-provisioned mobile
broadband connection. Working with dig-
ital marketing experts can help operators
leverage their infrastructure to optimise
customer acquisition flows.
Upstream experience shows that the
steps consumers need to take to subscribe
to a service can be reduced from nine to
two, thereby reducing sign-up time by up
to 80 per cent. Even better, customer
acquisition costs can be reduced by up to
90 per cent when using an optimal digital
flow with header enrichment.
PAYMENT CAPABILITIES
Some 87 per cent of consumers in emerg-
ing markets state they are willing to pay
for high-value digital services via mobile
devices, according to an m-commerce re-
port commissioned by Upstream. With 80
per cent of people in emerging markets
being unbanked, mobile operators are able
to provide the ubiquitous solution for con-
sumers paying for digital services.
“When it comes to payment cards, the
combined reach of Visa, MasterCard and
Amex is currently at 18 per cent of the
population in Sub-Saharan Africa. While
M-Pesa was a runaway success in Ken-
ya, mobile money payment options only
reach 11 per cent of mobile phone users
in emerging markets. That said, the most
trusted and preferred payment method is
direct operator billing, with 45 per cent of
consumers in these markets expressing a
preference for this payment method. It
is available to anyone who has a mobile
phone and it utilises a consumer’s airtime
balance as a reliable form of digital cur-
rency,” says Mr Veremis.
The majority of mobile consumers in
emerging markets are on prepaid plans, with
an average airtime balance of often less than
$2. Hence, offering the right kind of billing
plantosuittheirtop-upfrequencyhabitsand
corresponding income is critical. The most
appropriate way to monetise consumption
of digital services is the subscriptions-based,
micro-payment business model.
Responding to this, Mr Veremis puts
forward his view: “A subscription model
works well, but to really make it effective,
the payments have to be small and occur
more often, more commonly known as
micro-payments. Working with a technol-
ogy partner who really understands the
needs of consumers in emerging markets,
and who can provide the right platform
and consumer data, typically can increase
the percentage of successful charge rates
by up to 50 per cent.”
CUSTOMER DATA
On top of all this, mobile network opera-
tors have access to a wealth of data from
their customers, from spending patterns
and habits to their browsing preferences
and demographics. Mr Veremis says: “The
right use of operator customer data can
really help unlock improvements in pay-
ments, customer acquisition, and better
targeting of digital services and offers.”
In conclusion, mobile network opera-
tors are exceptionally well placed to se-
cure a significant share of the $70-billion
digital opportunity in emerging markets.
Trust in their brand is strong, they have
unparalleled consumer reach and they
hold the key to payment offerings for
unbanked consumers. However, as Up-
stream’s Mr Veremis concludes: “These
unique assets are not always leveraged to
their full potential. It helps a great deal to
partner with a company that has deep mo-
bile-commerce expertise, and can assist in
maximising revenues and place operators
at the top of the digital pyramid in devel-
oping markets.”
www.upstreamsystems.com
It helps a great deal to
partner with a company
that has deep mobile-
commerce expertise and
can help maximise revenues
in developing markets
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE
USE OF MNO CHANNELS TO RECRUIT SUBSCRIBERS TO DIGITAL SERVICES IN
EMERGING MARKETS
Performance indexed to 100 for comparison
UPSTREAM
MOBILE OPERATOR
DIGITAL SERVICE
PROVIDER
Based on a case study with a leading Brazilian operator
+17
+21
121
100
83
PENETRATION OF PAYMENT METHODS IN EMERGING MARKETS
PERCENTAGE REACH OF POPULATION
Source: GSMA Global Mobile Report 2016/Global Findex
MOBILE MONEY
(M-Pesa, Easypaisa)
CREDIT CARDS
(MC, Visa, Amex)
CARRIER BILLING
x15
x6
59%
10%
4%

If a brand can produce
helpful content, as
well as their core
service, it can remain
at the forefront of
a customer’s mind
without becoming
an annoyance
RYANAIR
Ryanair hasn’t always been
an airline synonymous
with digital prowess or
indeed great customer
care. But over the past
two-and-a-half years, the
company has invested
heavily in becoming a
mobile-first business.
“Our mobile app has now
had 13 million downloads
and 15,000 customers use
our mobile booking passes
each day,” says Ryanair’s
head of communications
Robin Kiely.
The My Ryanair
customer registration
service means the
company is able to
build up a profile of
their frequent flyers
and can use this to
make tailored offers. “If
someone regularly flies
to, say, Barcelona, we
can make discounted
offers, such as have 20
per cent off next time
and bring the kids,” says
Mr Kiely. “We can also
use booking information
to make timely offers
like, for example, if we
know there are large
queues at a particular
airport, we can send a
passenger a message
to see if they want to
buy a fast track ticket to
bypass the queues.”
Ryanair utilises social
media as a point of
contact for flyers. The @
Ryanair handle deals with
customer queries and
now travellers can get
real-time updates on the
@RyanairFlights handle
or get flight information
texted to their phones.
Rounding off the
customer journey is the
Rate My Flight service,
which uses the app to
send a notification once
someone lands, asking
them for feedback.
BEAUTY OF GETTING MOBILE FIRST OFF THE GROUND
Globally almost 4.8 billion
men and women subscribe to
a mobile service – almost two-
thirds of the world’s population – and
this is expected to reach 5.6 billion
people in 2020.
The mobile industry is also connecting
billions of people to the internet; mobile
is the dominant platform for internet
access in many parts of the world, given
the lack of alternative infrastructure. By
the end of the decade, just under 60 per
cent of the global population will be on
the mobile internet, but this also means
that 40 per cent of the world still will not
have access.
We must change this and it’s some-
thing our industry is very focused on, to
extend network coverage to rural areas,
improve affordability of mobile services,
deliver locally relevant content, and in-
crease digital skills and literacy.
But it’s not just about connectivity,
though that is a very important first step;
it’s about what this connectivity enables.
It really is about connecting everyone and
everything to a better future.
As an industry, we have an opportu-
nity to leverage the mobile networks we
have built and the services we deliver
to help achieve the United Nations sus-
tainable development goals (SDGs). With
a far-reaching and ambitious agenda,
the goals truly define what this “better
future” will be.
In February 2016, the mobile industry
became the first sector to commit to
the SDGs. In September, at the UN Gen-
eral Assembly week, we published the
2016 Mobile Industry Impact Report:
Sustainable Development Goals, which
provides an assessment of the mobile
industry’s current impact in achiev-
ing the SDGs and outlines future
actions that will expand and strength-
en impact.
This first-of-its-kind report offers
critical insights into the transforma-
tive impact of the mobile industry on
individuals, societies and economies
around the world, in developed and
developing markets. Further, it estab-
lishes a benchmark through which we
will measure the industry’s progress
in contributing to the SDGs by 2030
and serves as a blueprint for other in-
dustries as they commit to achieving
the goals.
The report finds that the
mobile industry impacts
all 17 goals to varying de-
grees, with the greatest
effect being felt on SDG 9
(industry, innovation and
infrastructure), SDG 1 (no
poverty), SDG 4 (quality
education) and SDG 13 (cli-
mate action). Mobile opera-
tors and players across the eco-
system are already delivering a vast
range of programmes and initiatives
that contribute to achieving the SDGs.
SDG 1
(NO POVERTY)
Today more than 400 million people
have access to financial services via
their phone, with mobile money services
available in more than 90 countries. The
mobile industry is committed to continue
to develop new mobile money products,
such as international remittances, for de-
veloping world consumers who need them
most.
SDG 5
(GENDER EQUALITY)
The mobile industry is focused on increas-
ing women’s access to and use of mobile
services in low and middle-income coun-
tries around the world. Since its launch
in February, 18 operators
representing more than
90 million customers
have joined the
Connected Women
Commitment Initiative
to close the gender gap
in mobile internet and
mobile money services.
SDG 8
(DECENT WORK AND
ECONOMIC GROWTH)
The mobile industry is a major contrib-
utor to the world’s economy. The mobile
ecosystem added $3.1 trillion in econom-
ic value to the global economy in 2015,
equivalent to 4.2 per cent of GDP, a figure
predicted to rise to $3.7 trillion by 2020.
The industry also directly and indirect-
ly supported 32 million jobs in 2015 and
contributed $430 billion to public fund-
ing in the form of various types of taxa-
tion.
SDG 11
(SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES)
The mobile industry is committed to lever-
aging technology and expertise to ensure
thatcommunication ispossiblein disasters
and humanitarian crises, such as recon-
necting families displaced by conflict in
Syria or supporting the response following
the recent devastating earthquake in Italy.
Endorsed by the United Nations Office for
the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
the GSMA’s Humanitarian Connectivity
Charter now has 103 mobile network oper-
ators across 76 countries, committed to en-
suring network resilience and supporting
subscribers during times of crisis.
The GSMA study also identified three
primary ways the mobile industry can
accelerate progress on SDGs: expand
the global mobile network footprint and
connect subscribers to voice and data
services; enhance the quality of connec-
tivity and ease of access, and innovate
mobile-enabled services to meet sustain-
able development needs; and contribute
to sustainable development policy along-
side governments and agencies. The 2016
Mobile Industry Impact Report forms a
baseline to measure the industry’s pro-
gress against the SDGs, and we’ll publish
updates on an annual basis.
In addition to publishing the report,
we have partnered with the United Na-
tions and Project Everyone to develop
and launch the official SDGs in Action
mobile app, creating a community for in-
dustry, governments and individual cit-
izens to work together in delivering the
SDGs. Users can get details on each of the
17 goals, including the associated SDG
targets, as well as explanatory videos,
case studies and data, and suggestions
on how people can take action to help
achieve them. The app also enables in-
dividuals to highlight the activities they
are undertaking in support of the SDGs
and to invite their social networks to
get involved.
Mobile networks are transforming the
world as we know it and are a revolution-
ary force in overturning the status quo.
They are also essential in achieving the
SDGs, whether it’s ensuring healthy lives
and promoting wellbeing for all, achieving
gender equality and empowering women
and girls, making cities and settlements
inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, or
helping to combat climate change and its
impacts. Working together as an industry,
with other sectors, governments and key
stakeholders, I do believe we can
make a real difference in peo-
ple’s lives.
The GSMA represents mobile
operators worldwide
Get on board
for the full
mobile journey
Businesses are increasingly managing the full
customer life cycle, from before to after sales,
purely through mobile, leveraging data to
provide a proactive and personalised service
FULL-SERVICE MOBILE
GABRIELLA GRIFFITH
W
hen it comes to disruption,
few industries have experi-
enced quite as much in re-
cent years as banking. Once
a traditional, slow-moving stalwart of
British society, banking is now witness-
ing the arrival of challenger banks that
are doing things faster and doing
them differently.
One such example is Monzo. This
app-only banking service gives users
access to a pre-paid debit card from their
phones, with lots of helpful notifications
to make it easy to manage money. Services
such as current accounts and overdrafts
are on the way, but if you’d like to use
Monzo now, you’d better get your name
on the waiting list fast as you’ll be joining
roughly 250,000 others in the queue.
“The waiting list is a mechanism to give
the cards out to the keenest early adop-
ters while we fine-tune the service, but
we didn’t anticipate the demand,” says
founder Tom Blomfield. “We think it’s
taken off because we’ve created some-
thing that people really want. When it
comes to controlling your money on a day-
to-day basis, the future is on mobile. It
gives you an amazing connection with the
customer on a minute-by-minute basis.”
Of course it’s not just the banking indus-
try that’s looking to mobile. There are an
increasing number of businesses describ-
ing themselves as “mobile first” that are
serving customers on mobile at every step
of their journey.
“Delivering a full-service mobile expe-
rience is fundamentally important today
when trying to reach, engage and retain
modern mobile-first audiences,” says
Julian Smith, head of strategy and inno-
vation at mobile strategy agency Fetch.
“For mobile app-only businesses like
Uber, it is business critical. If you are a
traditional brand or business, with a high
street presence, it will provide a competi-
tive advantage, especially when targeting
younger adult audiences.”
These mobile-first businesses are interact-
ing with customers on the platform from the
very start. The audience numbers on mobile
make it the most sensible place to fish for
new customers. According to Refused Car
Finance, 85 per cent of its audience views
its website on mobile and more than 80 per
cent of its conversions are completed using
a mobile device. “Advertising on Facebook is
one of the key ways for us to reach our target
audience, so our recent campaigns have
been tailored to mobile users exclusively,”
says managing director Craig Rutherford.
“Using features within the campaign
manager section of Facebook, we were
able to analyse our audience and identi-
fy which devices they were viewing our
advert campaigns and Facebook page on.
We changed our adverts to display only
to those on a mobile device and created
effective landing pages for the campaign
that were mobile optimised. We identified
our customer touchpoints to ensure we
had an overall holistic view to fully track
the customer journey at all stages.”
There are many businesses that after se-
curing a sale deliver their service through
mobile touchpoints. Monzo lets custom-
ers handle their finances at the push of
a button. Companies such as Uber are
offering an offline commodity delivered
through a mobile service. People order
cabs though the app and can then be con-
tacted directly by drivers on their mo-
biles. By taking the customer through the
service on mobile, companies are able to
track their activities and therefore get to
know their customers better.
“Data lies at the heart of managing a
full customer life cycle through mobile,”
says Mr Smith. “Data and insights need to
direct everything companies do from ac-
quisition to delivery to retention. For ser-
vice delivery, companies need to under-
stand the depth of engagement customers
have with mobile services and optimise
these to reduce friction and provide a
more seamless experience.”
By understanding a customer’s behav-
iour and preferences, a company can
deliver personalised experiences that
will help with the next step of the jour-
ney, retention and aftersales care. If a
company understands when someone
usually requires its service, it can create
relevant and timely offers, giving the
customer what they need and keeping
them engaged.
raconteur.net
“The mobile life cycle also depends on
delivery and aftersales messaging,” ex-
plains Marise Treseder, head of market-
ing at Zeta Interactive. “Proving you care
beyond the point of purchase will build
loyalty and keep customers coming back
for more. And while push messaging can
feel intrusive if it comes at the wrong
moment, a timely contact can reinforce
a positive perception of the brand and
its emphasis on customer care. Euros-
tar’s customer satisfaction survey text
messages, for example, arrive as you
pull into your destination station and
are a great example of time-sensitive
messages that reinforce positive per-
ceptions which begin to address any
service issues.”
Of course, with any business strategy
there are pitfalls. One of the benefits of
managing a customer life cycle through
mobile is that you are always with them.
Using a mobile is a more personal experi-
ence, so when a brand has a customer in
that kind of space, it needs to be respect-
ful. “It’s a fine line between being help-
ful and intrusive, and brands need to be
careful in how they are tracking and pro-
actively contacting customers on mobile,”
says Ms Treseder.
One of the ways a brand can mitigate
this is by adding another thread of con-
versation with the customer that has
nothing to do with sales. If a brand can
produce helpful content, as well as their
core service, it can remain at the forefront
of a customer’s mind without becoming
an annoyance. Columbia Sportswear is
a good example of this. The brand de-
veloped an app called What Knot to Do,
which gives customers guidance on how
to tie various different knots.
“Almost entirely devoid of sales mate-
rial, the app transcends the transaction,
encouraging engagement with their ex-
isting audience and tapping into new
customers by establishing Columbia as
a relevant and helpful brand for sailing
customers,” says Ms Treseder. “Creating
a ‘mobile value exchange’ where custom-
ers feel like they are getting as much as
they give on their smartphones will help
brands to deepen engagement and drive
loyalty beyond the transaction.”
Eurostar’s customer
satisfaction text mes-
sages arrive as trav-
ellers pull into their
destination station
OPT-IN RATES FOR PUSH NOTIFICATIONS FROM MOBILE APPS
Source: Accengage 2016
TELECOMS
E-COMMERCE
FINANCE
GAMING
TRAVEL
REAL
ESTATE
ENTERTAINMENT
RETAIL
MEDIA
FAST-MOVING
CONSUMER GOODS
56%
41%
51%
36%
51%
36%
43%
34%
41%
29%
OPINION COLUMN
Connect everyone and
everything to a better future
The mobile industry has an opportunity to improve the lives of billions of people around the world
MATS GRANRYD
Director general
GSMA
TungCheung/Shutterstock
TREATWELL
Sixty per cent of beauty
marketplace Treatwell’s
business happens on
mobile and chief executive
Lopo Champalimaud
expects this to rise to 90
per cent over the next
few years. “We realised a
while ago that we needed
to become a mobile-first
business and we’ve seen
a huge transformation
since then,” says Mr
Champalimaud.
Indeed, the company
has found that customers
who use their mobile
are likely to spend more
frequently than those who
visit on desktop. “We use
things like competitions
to encourage our desktop
users to download the app
and start using mobile,”
he says.
Mobile is Treatwell’s
biggest channel for
acquisition, particularly
Facebook, where they
buy mobile-targeted
ads. “We have also
seen that Google has
started to index our
app in search results,
which is driving more
people on to the app,”
says Mr Champalimaud.
Once a customer has
booked a treatment
with the company, the
booking is added to the
user’s calendar and they
receive text messages to
remind them.
Having customers
search for a service
via their mobile also
means they get a more
accurate result, getting
salons located closest
to them. “It allows
us to make better
recommendations,” he
says. Once customers
have been to their
appointments, Treatwell
can prompt them to
leave reviews, which
it describes are an
important part of the
ecosystem.
32m
jobs directly and indirectly
supported by the mobile
industry in 2015
$3.1trn
contribution to the global
economy by the mobile
ecosystem in 2015,
growing to $3.7trn in 2020

MOBILE MOMENTS THAT
CHANGED THE WORLD
In just four decades, the mobile phone has rapidly evolved
to become a device we can't be without, in the pockets of
an estimated two billion people worldwide. We now live
in an age when information, connectivity and entertain-
ment are instantaneous, at the touch of a button or swipe
of a screen. From the 80s “brick” to the flip-phones of the
90s, to the dawn of the smartphone and the touchscreen
mini computers we know today, each stage of the evolu-
tion has effected major change in the way we do business,
interact socially and live our lives on a daily basis
1973 Motorola made the first publicised mobile phone
call on the DynaTAC prototype, weighing in at
1.15kg. It was 10 inches long (excluding the 4-inch
antenna) and had a battery life of just 20 minutes
First-generation (1G) analogue cellular
networks were launched by Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone. Calls were low quality
and insecure, so people were able to hack
signals and eavesdrop on conversations
1979
1984
1991
1992
Motorola's DynaTAC launched as the first
commercially available mobile phone, retailing
for $4,000. Talk time improved to 30 minutes,
though a full charge took 10 hours. It included
enough storage to save 30 phone numbers,
weighed 800g and was nicknamed "the brick"
2G cellular telecom digital networks were
launched commercially in Finland by Radiolinja,
enabling higher-quality, more secure calls
1994
The first SMS message was sent
via the Vodafone network
IBM's Simon Personal Communicator,
priced at $1,099, was one of the first
attempts at a touchscreen phone with
no physical buttons. It was the first to
include both telephone and PDA (personal
digital assistant) features in one device
Ericsson invented Bluetooth, the
wireless technology for exchanging
data over short distances
1996
1997
Motorola's StarTAC, the first flip phone, was
much smaller and lighter than other devices on
the market at the time. Priced at $1,000, it was
the first to include a vibrate alert function
Nokia’s 9000 Communicator, complete with
QWERTY keyboard, is widely regarded as the first
commercially available smartphone. It had 8MB of
memory, a monochrome display and weighed 397g
Sources: GSMA Intelligence/company accounts and press releases/online sources
Nokia's 6110 gained cult status for its pre-
installed Snake game. Along with an infra-red
port for data transfer between compatible
phones, the 6110 doubled up as a handy pager
1998 3G telecom networks were launched commercially.
Meanwhile, the number of mobile phones sold
worldwide surpassed sales of cars and PCs combined
Siemens' S10 was the first colour-screen
mobile, capable of reproducing just four
colours – red, green blue and white
2010
2011
1999
Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP,
became the technical standard for accessing
information over a mobile wireless network –
essentially a stripped-back version of HTTP
Nokia released the 3210, the first mass-market
device with an internal antenna. Official standby time
was 260 hours – that’s a charge every 10.83 days
2000
The J-SH04, produced by Sharp and
released in Japan by J-Phone, was regarded
as one of the first camera phones, with
an integrated 0.11-megapixel camera
Research In Motion launched its maiden
phone, the BlackBerry 5810. It was
the first BlackBerry to combine the PDA features of
RIM’s older models with a phone. It lacked a speaker and
required earphones to make a call, but still cost $500
2002
MARCH
Nokia's 7650 slider phone was its first
with an in-built camera (0.3 megapixels).
The handset’s release was promoted in conjunction with
the futuristic Tom Cruise sci-fi film Minority Report
JUNE
2003
Nokia's 1100 went on to become the world’s best-selling
handset by 2007. While colour-screen camera phones were
rising in popularity, the black-and-white 1100 targeted
developing countries that did not require advanced
features and sold 250 million units in just four years
2005 A mobile startup named Android was quietly acquired by Google for $50
million, revealing the internet giant’s ambition in the mobile space
Apple boss Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, featuring an
inbuilt iPod and multitouch interface without the need for a
physical keyboard or stylus. He described it as being “five years ahead” of its time
2007
2008
iPhone sales surpassed one million just 74
days after its commercial launch in June
Google opened up its Android operating system for
free development with the Open Handset Alliance,
a consortium of firms including HTC, Samsung and LG working to
advance open standards for mobile devices. Google’s own services for
search, video and e-mail were made default on all Android devices
NOVEMBER
JANUARY
SEPTEMBER
JUNEApple introduced the iPhone 3G
Apple launched the App Store with 500
native applications to download. Later
that month, App Store downloads topped ten million
JULY
Apple’s App Store downloads
topped 100 million
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
The first commercially available
smartphone running on the
Android operating system, the HTC Dream, was
released. Meanwhile, the Android Market app store
(now known as Google Play) was launched
WhatsApp launched its now-
eponymous instant messenger app,
enabling users to send messages, files, multimedia,
audio and location data over cellular data
Apple unveiled FaceTime in conjunction
with the launch of the iPhone 4, enabling
one-on-one video-calling with compatible devices
Global mobile penetration reached 19 per cent in the
developed world and 5 per cent in developing nations
2009 APRIL
NOVEMBER
Apple’s App Store downloads topped one
billion, rising to two billion by September
Samsung released its first Galaxy phone, running on the
Android OS. It had 8GB of storage and a 5-megapixel
camera autofocus camera, costing more than $700
4G telecom networks were launched
JANUARY
Microsoft's Windows Mobile renamed
Windows Phone and revamped
due to competition from rivals iOS and Android
FEBRUARY
Google’s Android OS finally
began to take off with the
launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone
MARCH
JUNE
Google bought Motorola
Mobility for $12.5 billion to
gain control of its portfolio of patents
Apple unveiled Siri as a feature of
the iPhone 4S, a voice-activated
personal assistant that answers questions, makes
recommendations and performs tasks
AUGUST
OCTOBER
2013
The number of Android apps on Google Play
topped one million, surpassing Apple’s App Store.
Downloads on Google Play reached 50 billion
2014
Facebook bought WhatsApp
for $19.3 billion
Apple announced the Apple Pay mobile payment
and digital wallet service as a feature of the iPhone
6, enabling users to pay using the phone's contactless technology
Google sold most of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for
$2.91 billion, but retained 2,000 of its patents
AUGUST
OCTOBER
2015
The global 4G connection base
passed the one billion mark
Worldwide mobile advertising spending
reached almost $70 billion, accounting for
more than a tenth of all advertising
2017 Apple launches the iPhone 8
2020 5G telecom networks are launched
Global mobile penetration reaches 76 per cent in the
The number of mobiles around the world tops 5.8 billion
The mobile industry contributes $3.75 trillion to annual global
GDP. The mobile ecosystem directly employs 20 million
people worldwide, plus an additional 16 million indirectly
2019 Global payments from mobile phones surpass $1
trillion, up from an estimated $620 billion in 2016
2016
Google launched its video-chatting
app called Duo, expected to compete
with Apple’s FaceTime and Microsoft’s Skype. It includes
the so-called “knock knock” feature, allowing users a
glimpse of who’s making the call before they answer
WhatsApp’s user-base topped
one billion, making it the
world’s most popular messaging app
Global mobile penetration reached 69 per cent in the
FEBRUARY
AUGUST
iPhone 7
Samsung
Galaxy
iPhone
Nokia
8210
BlackBerry
5810
Nokia
6110
IBM Simon
Personal
Communicator
Motorola
DynaTAC Motorola
StarTAC

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Making mobile
payments safe
and still easy
As mobile payments gain in popularity, fraud
is also on the rise, requiring speedy tech
solutions to thwart the fraudsters
FRAUD
SIMON BROOKE
M
obile payments are booming.
According to research pub-
lished earlier this month by
Visa, the number of consum-
ers regularly using a mobile device such as
a smartphone, tablet or wearable to make
payments has tripled since 2015, rising
from 18 per cent to 54 per cent.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, mobile
payments fraud is also growing rapidly.
In the United States although mobile pay-
ments account for 14 per cent of transactions
among merchants who accept them, they
make up 21 per cent of fraud cases, according
to a survey of around 1,100 companies pub-
lished in January by risk management con-
sultancy LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
“With mobility changing everything we
do as humans, especially the way we bank
and pay, cyber crime has fully migrated to
the mobile platform, with all the threats
we know from the PC in tow,” says Limor
Kessem, executive security adviser at IBM
Security Systems. “Despite storing large
amounts of personal information on their
devices, most people don’t implement even
the most basic security countermeasures
on their smartphones.”
AccordingtoSalvatoreSinno,chiefsecurity
architect at Unisys, mobile devices are more
susceptible to loss or theft than desktops and
tablets. “At the same time users have the ten-
dency to use these devices in a more personal
and confidential way,” he says.
“On the technical side, the security con-
trols and the tools available are still evolving
and are limited by processing power and bat-
tery life. Moreover, by their intrinsic nature,
mobile payment systems rely on wireless
carrier infrastructure, which are open and
designed to ‘share’ and interoperate connec-
tion, not designed with security in mind.”
As with other areas of financial technol-
ogy banks and technology companies are
working hard to stay ahead of the fraudsters.
Passwords are unpopular with consumers
and are not even particularly secure. The
challenge now is to improve security while
ensuring that performing transactions is
quick and easy.
Transactions incorrectly declined by
banks annoy consumers and lose money
for merchants, points out Ajay Bhalla,
president of enterprise risk and security at
MasterCard, which earlier this month an-
nounced the European rollout of Identity
Check Mobile, a new payment technology
application that uses biometrics such as
fingerprints or facial recognition to verify a
cardholder’s identity.
“We take a multi-layered approach that in-
volves biometrics in conjunction with other
technology,” he says. “We want the custom-
er experience be very smooth and conven-
ient every time they use their device.”
Fraud isn’t at point of sale, it’s at the ac-
count-opening stage, according to Mitek,
a company that provides visual and biom-
etric identification for the onboarding of
accounts to more than 5,200 financial insti-
tutions. “If you’re confident in the identity
of the person who owns the account then
duced an increase in usage of the app of
more than 10 per cent, with millions of ad-
ditional logins.
Already developers are ensuring that data
on mobile is deeply hidden, often tokenised,
in other words encrypted, and safer from
theft in a way that cash or a payment card in
a customer’s hand or a PIN code typed into
a payment terminal can never be, explains
Dennis Jones, chief executive at mobile
payments provider Judopay.
“It’s just that much harder to steal your
phone and your thumb print,” he says. “Yet
additional layers of mobile-specific security,
which track unique devices and react to unu-
sual activity, need to be scaled across mobile
commerce to avoid fraudsters trying to trick
the system by changing SIM cards or using
different accounts on the same device.”
VocaLink, a UK-based payments systems
company, has launched a Pay by Bank app.
AlreadyinusebyBarclaysPingitcustomers,it
allows people to make instant payments from
within their existing trusted mobile banking
app, directly from their account, without the
information ever leaving their bank.
“This adds the layer of security needed
for consumers as you authorise every pay-
ment individually, without the hassle of
inputting the data required, via a payment
technology that prevents certain types of
online payment fraud from ever happen-
ing,” says Liam Spence, head of product at
Pay by Bank.
Veridu, which was founded in 2014 and
now has backing from Worldpay, asks con-
sumers to sign into their social media to
verify their identity when a transaction has
been flagged up.
According to recent research from finan-
cial technology firm Intelligent Environ-
ments, 25 per cent of consumers would like
their bank to introduce biometric security,
to avoid the need for them to remember a
number of passwords.
In addition, only 23 per
cent trust traditional
passwords or pass-
codes over biometric
authentication.
“However, the tradi-
tional banks have been
slow to incorporate
biometric technology
within their mobile
banking and payment
facilities, largely due
to difficulties updating
ageing infrastructure,” says Intelligent En-
vironment’s chief technology officer Clay-
ton Locke.
Instead of passwords, challenger bank
Atom is employing face and voice recogni-
tion technology, the kind of biometric soft-
ware used at airports and border controls.
Once a customer’s identity credentials are
registered, including their face, voice and
passcode, they can choose how they want to
login to the Atom app. They can then pres-
ent their face to view their balance or say a
few words to transfer money.
Biometrics combined with geolocation and
data analytics can start making a difference
raconteur.net
in reducing fraud significantly, believes Jitin
Goyal of financial technology product pro-
vider Polaris Consulting. “But we’re just now
seeing the evolution of these technologies
and they will take anywhere between two to
five years to mature,” he says.
Research published by Deloitte in Septem-
ber shows that 21 per cent of all smartphone
users in the UK are now using their finger-
prints for a range of authentication-based
applications, including approving trans-
actions. Some 76 per cent of those with a
fingerprint scanner
use it and it’s by far the
most popular biome-
tric identifier used by
smartphone owners.
Hannah Maun-
drell, editor in chief
of money.co.uk, says:
“Security is still the
biggest worry and it
does put people off de-
spite phone companies
giving us assurances
it’s safe. It’s a new tech-
nology though and the more widely accepted
it becomes, the more people will say goodbye
to cards in favour of a wave of their handset.”
Mr Sinno at Unisys believes the industry
should consider a simple customer educa-
tion programme on security that addresses
issues such as the structure of strong pass-
words and ensuring customers’ devices lock
after a certain period. “The importance of
updating their operating system and appli-
cations must be stressed, as well as other
issues such as the dangers of a ‘jail-broken’
device, and the implementation of encryp-
tion and anti-virus software whenever pos-
sible,” he says.
Ms Maundrell advises consumers to keep
a keen eye on their statements so that if they
can spot any transactions they don’t recog-
nise, they can take action quickly – sound
advice however sophisticated anti-fraud
mobile payments technology becomes.
53%
FINGERPRINT
SCANNING
29%
COMBINATION
OF PIN AND
BIOMETRICS
23%
RETINAL
SCANNING
15%
FACIAL
RECOGNITION
12%
VOICE
RECOGNITION
10%
BEHAVIOURAL
BIOMETRICS
Biometrics combined
with geolocation and
data analytics can start
making a difference
in reducing fraud
significantly
01
MasterCard’s Identity
Check biometric
technology includes
the so-called “selfie
pay” feature
02
According to Visa,
three quarters of
consumers believe
that two-factor
authentication –
biometrics used in
conjunction with a
password – is secure
for mobile payments
02
01
you should be relatively safe from fraud,”
says Sarah Clark, Mitek’s general manager
of payments. “The problem is that current-
ly far too many people are simply unable
to make their way through the verification
processes on their mobile device.”
Among other security innovations, Ge-
malto, a digital security company, has de-
veloped what it calls Dynamic Code Veri-
fication. This allows issuers to replace the
static three-digit visual cryptogram tradi-
tionally used for online purchases with a
verification code displayed on the custom-
er’s mobile that changes every 20 minutes,
thereby limiting the time for fraud to occur.
Nationwide Building Society introduced
fingerprint logins to its new banking app
this summer and, in the first month, pro-
21%of all UK smartphone
users are now using
fingerprint authentication
for a variety of
applications, including
approving transactions
Source:
Deloitte 2016
Bloomberg/GettyImages
BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION
OF PAYMENTS
Percentage of consumers who would
prefer biometric authentication
Source: Visa 2016
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
COMBATTING THE
MOBILE HACKERS
Your mobile number is all a hacker needs to intercept your calls and texts,
block your signal and track your movements
I
n five years' there will be nine billion mo-
bile subscriptions – that’s more than there
are people on the planet.
“Mobileisgoingfromstrengthtostrength.
It’s crucial for our private and business lives.
But with greater reliance on devices, comes
a greater risk especially when it comes to pri-
vacy and fraud,” warns Steve Buck, product
director at Evolved Intelligence.
Phone hacking isn’t new; stories of
high-profile figures being plundered are le-
gion, from Kate Middleton to Milly Dowler.
These examples seem disconnected from
our everyday use, but fresh revelations of
hacking potentially affect us all.
They come in the wake of a US me-
dia storm, sparked by CBS news show 60
Minutes, where a congressman’s calls and
movements were monitored. All hackers
did was get hold of one piece of data – his
phone number.
They then accessed a network few of us
have heard of, yet all of us have used. Once
in, the hacker can track your movements, in-
tercept calls and texts, as well as block your
signal from anywhere in the world.
Mobile operators use a network called
Signalling System 7 (SS7), which allows all
operators to talk to each other. “It’s the cen-
tral-nervous system of the worldwide mobile
network. It connects our devices with all
networks and allows us to move around while
using them. It’s essentially what makes them
mobile. More people use SS7 than the inter-
net,” says Mr Buck.
Criminals are increasingly using the SS7
network to access our mobiles. “Attacks can
affect any phone, on any carrier and any oper-
ating system, and it’s possible because of se-
curity flaws in the global network,” says Nick
Jones, chief technology officer at Evolved
Intelligence, that provides roaming, fraud and
security solutions.
Developed in 1975, SS7 is considered an-
cient in tech circles. Security officials have
flagged vulnerabilities for decades. The
GSMA, whose members include 800 oper-
ators globally, are actively working to advise
operators how to plug this hole. The US Fed-
eral Communications Commission and other
regulators are also investigating.
For example, every day a medium-sized
operator serving five million customers will
have thousands of attacks, including doz-
ens of sophisticated ones. Even intelligence
agencies, accused of espionage, are believed
to be in on the act.
“Nowadays it costs as little as £800 a
month to access the SS7 network – a small
price for hackers who use it to eavesdrop
on calls, track movements, spam you, deny
you service or use it to intercept passwords
to access your bank account. The holes are
there to be exploited and we need more
protection,” says Mr Jones.
Yet it’s impossible to know if we’re be-
ing hacked. If you have access to SS7, you
have access to anyone’s mobile. There is no
global policing and it’s up to each operator
to resolve these issues. Some operators
have begun installing protection. Attacks
can be combatted with a signalling firewall
or to a degree with modifications to exist-
ing equipment.
Evolved Intelligence is working with mo-
bile operators to tackle the issue. “The prob-
lem is widespread so that’s why we’re speak-
ing to operators across the world about how
to solve this SS7 flaw,” says Mr Jones.
Every day the Bristol-based company pro-
cesses two billion messages. “We separate
malicious messages from the legitimate, so
we can secure the network while allowing
genuine services through,” explains Mr Buck.
“We have worked with many banks to
secure their communications. Once we
secure the network, we can then enable a
lot more legitimate and useful applications,
including more secure banking or applica-
tions for the internet of things, such as ve-
hicle tracking,” he says.
“The mobile revolution continues una-
bated. We must do more to secure the mo-
bile network, while enabling lawful appli-
cations and communications. Mobile is like
the early days of the internet, when users
first realised they needed to protect their
PCs from malicious attacks.”
www.evolved-intelligence.com
Mobile is like the early days
of the internet, when users
first realised they needed
to protect their PCs from
malicious attacks
2bn
£50
messages processed
by Evolved Intelligence
every day
is all a criminal
charges to hack a
mobile phone
35mroamers managed by
Evolved Intelligence
every day
EugenioMarongiu/Shutterstock

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