By the Day of Radio. Oh connection, you are the world
Today is the Day of Radio and Communications, perhaps the most favorite engineering holiday in Russia. It is celebrated by employees of cellular and fixed communications, radio, developers, engineers. And this is not surprising, because not a single company, not a single person thinks of himself today without communication. Every year at industry conferences and in publications for radio and communications predict a speedy end or, at best, a transformation beyond recognition. But nevertheless, technologies are constantly evolving: in 2003, the paging connection was still alive, and this fall the world is waiting for the commercial launch of 5G. We will walk through the history of mobile communications in the service of business with nostalgic sadness - the moments were very interesting.
So did you take our job? A source
Since the time of the USSR with traditional telephony, everything was pretty straightforward - it was actively used in government bodies and enterprises, was an important element of any infrastructure. Its simplicity and convenience has been adopted and multiplied by IP-telephony, which quickly took root due to availability, speed and integration capabilities. Another thing is mobile cellular communication. Her friendship with the business was not easy. Operators were chasing margins and trying to retain corporate customers with packages, additional services and post-paid business, the business was looking for the best offers, made corporate mobile communications with an HR advantage and was in no hurry to use business services. It was expensive, confusing, difficult.
In 1991, the first cellular network earned from the operator Delta Telecom, then in the analog standard NMT-450i. The first Mobira brand phones - MD 59 NB2 (Nokia) appeared in very wealthy people, the joke is to say $ 2000. Tariffing was as simple as possible: 1 minute - 1 cu
')
Mobira - MD 59 NB2, almost 3 kg
By the way, billing in cu and in dollars it lasted until the beginning of the 2000s, when the “profitable” packages of $ 14-20 and the cherished free 5 seconds of conversation appeared (you look at the second hand of the clock and say: “I'm on the spot, I'm waiting.” The main thing is to hang up, without going over seconds, - the whole quest). Currency times of cellular communication, we could remember the epoch-making advertising MTS "Jeans" - "Ten bucks is not superfluous." However, we were distracted by nostalgia (I think, not the last time for this post).
Those same ten bucks
Of course, then cellular communication, although it was the prerogative of the guys doing business (and not only), had almost no relation to business - the companies continued to use fixed communications in their daily work. Nevertheless, the operators quickly multiplied (MCC, Delta Telecom, Sonet, Corbin, MTS, VimpelCom) and realized that there was nothing to do at B2C yet, but it was necessary to pay for the networks. So, it's time to break into the corporate segment. Business subscribers (often - foreign entrepreneurs who decided to do business in the context of young wild capitalism in Russia) received offers to purchase both subscriber devices and unlimited data plans (with subscription fees up to several thousand dollars). Moreover, the packages were distributed only to voice traffic - there was no talk about SMS, and even less about the Internet).
Advertising 1995, "sharpened" in the business segment:
However, in those days everything was fine with SMS - representatives of business, science, doctors, and some ordinary citizens had pagers on their belts - small devices with displays that could send messages by calling the operator and dictating the subscriber code and text messages ("Girl, send a message to the subscriber 15534:" Shipment tomorrow at 17, decide with the transport "). Just pagers were widely distributed in the business right up to 2003-2004, they were used by emergency and engineering companies, logisticians, doctors, couriers and managers in all spheres (even Bruce Willis in the famous "Die Hard"). It was really very convenient. The pager was not only an inexpensive means of communication, but also a symbolic part of the image of a business person.
Pager
By the way, in the history were also noted the Tvagers, pagers of two-way communication with the keyboard. Despite the small but very stable market, the paging connection finally lost ground by 2010 - cheap tariffs and cheap mobiles have done their job. No, in this post it is absolutely impossible not to be nostalgic.
And here also MMM was not cut :-)
Let's go back to the mid-90s. The business of young cellular companies went well, and they didn’t think much about how to fight for every penny of ARPU and increase LTV - competition is not high, there is no communication penetration, the service is in demand. But 1998 happened to all of us, it happened to telecom operators (there were no big three then, Megaphone will appear only in 2001, but VimpelCom has lived since 1992, MTS since 1993, but they didn’t divide the market into two) . This year was marked by a deep structural economic crisis - many companies went bankrupt, foreign investors curtailed their activities, and household income fell. Sotovi got an outflow of subscribers, and since ARPU was extremely high, the profits went down.
As you know, a crisis is the best time for reversal and development. Cellular operators turned towards B2C and groped for a gold mine. In the fall of 1999, VimpelCom rolled out the “Bi +” package to the market, designed for private clients with not very high incomes.
Bis from Bee +
After him, the operators began to develop subscriber solutions, and then sell cell phones with a contract - a simple phone cost $ 49, the $ 10 bonus went to the account. The scheme is still alive today. The introduction of automatic (albeit damn expensive) roaming and payment by the second conquered both the private and business segments. At the end of the 90s, over 20 million SIM-cards were sold in Russia. In 2010, the average cost per minute was 5 cents ($ 0.05) and was the lowest in Europe.
Legendary video about per second billing
In 2000, thoughts about the profitable corporate segment forced operators to look for new ways to honestly take money from subscribers and led to WAP technology. The first appeared adapted portals with business information. However, although WAP and became entertainment, but he did not get success - mainly because of rounding and brutal tariffs.
At that time, operators continue to struggle for business and form corporate departments that forget about past life and attract customers, develop special tariffs, discounts, packages, services, and payment methods (postpaid is especially popular - first talk, then pay. Many surprises were from companies that have issued SIM cards to employees as an element of motivation). And it is for corporate clients that data transfer services using GPRS technology are offered for the first time (world - 1999, Russia - 2003) - a breakthrough, real Internet in your phone!
At the same time, in 2003, SkyLink (SkyLink) competed with GSM operators, uniting regional NMT-450 operators under its wing and setting the goal of creating a single federal cellular cellular network of the IMT-MC-450 standard (CDMA2000 1X technology). Skylink had EV-DO technology, 10 times faster than the new GPRS. SkyLink is becoming popular among corporate customers who have built a business with the help of wireless technologies - so mobile communication has seriously come to the service of offices.
Skylink business internet advertising, very cool
SkyLink advertised sometimes unusual benefits :-)
GPRS quickly changed to 2.5G and 3G networks, operators significantly expanded the range of services for businesses - now they were voice packages, packages for SMS sending to customers, and expensive E1 digital stream, which was a salvation for offices that did not reach the wired Internet major providers. Specific services also appeared: M2M (services for “communicating” machines and controlling their states), GPS services (beacons, employee detection systems in the field). Unfortunately, these services have not received wide popularity, but their importance is extremely high - they became the forerunner of the development of IoT, in which telecom operators have yet to play a huge role.
In 2011, a Beeline study showed that in cities with a population of over one million, 86% of employees provide corporate cellular communications — in the form of compensation, corporate tariffs, or wage increases. It was an undoubted success.
But how he positioned the benefits for the Tele2 business in 2013 (there was a series of commercials):
Today, mobile operators continue to actively develop services for the corporate segment, but the main priority remains for voice traffic and data transmission (4G). A business can get cloud services, integrated solutions with virtual PBXs and equipment, online cash registers and even business services (accounting, CRM, office offers). But this seems to be a bit of a dead end - to create part of the services, ready-made solutions of third parties (vendors, developers) are used, as a result of which the performance and quality control is eroded.
We are on the verge of introducing 5G - it is planned to launch commercial segments of the network in the USA in the fall, the standard was tested at the Olympics in Pkhenchkhane. In the B2C segment, operators are taking a lot of steps: bank cards have already been launched, telemedicine is developing, subsidized devices have entered the trend again, we all have mobile Internet in our hands with private and business mailboxes and instant messengers. In general, the world has long been in our pocket.
Sometimes you can stumble upon materials predicting the imminent decline of mobile communication. Of course, this is largely marketing, not visionary. Cellular has a huge foundation for development, which lies in the core value - a well-established and well-established network with intelligible business models and coverage in fact almost across the globe. The network is getting better from year to year, coverage is increasing, speed is increasing. As a result, this sustainable infrastructure underlies the future.
Of course, we are not telecom operators, but we are a B2B business, and now we can already assume how events will develop.
However, on the way to deep integration with business objectives, operators should remember not only marketing, but also that business is much more important than colorful advertising, expensive events and discounts - about security. Attacks can be made in several directions: on the infrastructure side of the operator (and we have witnessed massive information leaks), in the communication channel (active interception through radio frequency scanning), and even hidden installation of malware is now easier than ever - subscribers endlessly download and update the application.
From the first day of its existence, cellular communication was at the service of business, it still stands, and this friendship will only be stronger, because nothing can replace our mobility, speed, convenient tariffs and almost always high standards of service.
We congratulate all those involved, past and present, amateurs and professionals, and traditionally repeat the favorite toast: “For communication without marriage!”
Let there be a connection.
☛ With you, the RegionSoft CRM CRM development team was nostalgic - we have been on the Russian market for 17 years and have seen the phenomena described live.
☛ The superhero of the modern Telegram connection is alive, so subscribe to our channel about CRM and thoughts .
☛ During the work on the publication, the website http://sernam.ru and the archive of the journal “Technologies and Communication” helped us a little to refresh our memory .
So did you take our job? A source
Since the time of the USSR with traditional telephony, everything was pretty straightforward - it was actively used in government bodies and enterprises, was an important element of any infrastructure. Its simplicity and convenience has been adopted and multiplied by IP-telephony, which quickly took root due to availability, speed and integration capabilities. Another thing is mobile cellular communication. Her friendship with the business was not easy. Operators were chasing margins and trying to retain corporate customers with packages, additional services and post-paid business, the business was looking for the best offers, made corporate mobile communications with an HR advantage and was in no hurry to use business services. It was expensive, confusing, difficult.
Communication + business = ❤?
In 1991, the first cellular network earned from the operator Delta Telecom, then in the analog standard NMT-450i. The first Mobira brand phones - MD 59 NB2 (Nokia) appeared in very wealthy people, the joke is to say $ 2000. Tariffing was as simple as possible: 1 minute - 1 cu
')
Mobira - MD 59 NB2, almost 3 kg
By the way, billing in cu and in dollars it lasted until the beginning of the 2000s, when the “profitable” packages of $ 14-20 and the cherished free 5 seconds of conversation appeared (you look at the second hand of the clock and say: “I'm on the spot, I'm waiting.” The main thing is to hang up, without going over seconds, - the whole quest). Currency times of cellular communication, we could remember the epoch-making advertising MTS "Jeans" - "Ten bucks is not superfluous." However, we were distracted by nostalgia (I think, not the last time for this post).
Those same ten bucks
Of course, then cellular communication, although it was the prerogative of the guys doing business (and not only), had almost no relation to business - the companies continued to use fixed communications in their daily work. Nevertheless, the operators quickly multiplied (MCC, Delta Telecom, Sonet, Corbin, MTS, VimpelCom) and realized that there was nothing to do at B2C yet, but it was necessary to pay for the networks. So, it's time to break into the corporate segment. Business subscribers (often - foreign entrepreneurs who decided to do business in the context of young wild capitalism in Russia) received offers to purchase both subscriber devices and unlimited data plans (with subscription fees up to several thousand dollars). Moreover, the packages were distributed only to voice traffic - there was no talk about SMS, and even less about the Internet).
Advertising 1995, "sharpened" in the business segment:
However, in those days everything was fine with SMS - representatives of business, science, doctors, and some ordinary citizens had pagers on their belts - small devices with displays that could send messages by calling the operator and dictating the subscriber code and text messages ("Girl, send a message to the subscriber 15534:" Shipment tomorrow at 17, decide with the transport "). Just pagers were widely distributed in the business right up to 2003-2004, they were used by emergency and engineering companies, logisticians, doctors, couriers and managers in all spheres (even Bruce Willis in the famous "Die Hard"). It was really very convenient. The pager was not only an inexpensive means of communication, but also a symbolic part of the image of a business person.
By the way, in the history were also noted the Tvagers, pagers of two-way communication with the keyboard. Despite the small but very stable market, the paging connection finally lost ground by 2010 - cheap tariffs and cheap mobiles have done their job. No, in this post it is absolutely impossible not to be nostalgic.
And here also MMM was not cut :-)
Let's go back to the mid-90s. The business of young cellular companies went well, and they didn’t think much about how to fight for every penny of ARPU and increase LTV - competition is not high, there is no communication penetration, the service is in demand. But 1998 happened to all of us, it happened to telecom operators (there were no big three then, Megaphone will appear only in 2001, but VimpelCom has lived since 1992, MTS since 1993, but they didn’t divide the market into two) . This year was marked by a deep structural economic crisis - many companies went bankrupt, foreign investors curtailed their activities, and household income fell. Sotovi got an outflow of subscribers, and since ARPU was extremely high, the profits went down.
As you know, a crisis is the best time for reversal and development. Cellular operators turned towards B2C and groped for a gold mine. In the fall of 1999, VimpelCom rolled out the “Bi +” package to the market, designed for private clients with not very high incomes.
Bis from Bee +
After him, the operators began to develop subscriber solutions, and then sell cell phones with a contract - a simple phone cost $ 49, the $ 10 bonus went to the account. The scheme is still alive today. The introduction of automatic (albeit damn expensive) roaming and payment by the second conquered both the private and business segments. At the end of the 90s, over 20 million SIM-cards were sold in Russia. In 2010, the average cost per minute was 5 cents ($ 0.05) and was the lowest in Europe.
Legendary video about per second billing
In 2000, thoughts about the profitable corporate segment forced operators to look for new ways to honestly take money from subscribers and led to WAP technology. The first appeared adapted portals with business information. However, although WAP and became entertainment, but he did not get success - mainly because of rounding and brutal tariffs.
At that time, operators continue to struggle for business and form corporate departments that forget about past life and attract customers, develop special tariffs, discounts, packages, services, and payment methods (postpaid is especially popular - first talk, then pay. Many surprises were from companies that have issued SIM cards to employees as an element of motivation). And it is for corporate clients that data transfer services using GPRS technology are offered for the first time (world - 1999, Russia - 2003) - a breakthrough, real Internet in your phone!
At the same time, in 2003, SkyLink (SkyLink) competed with GSM operators, uniting regional NMT-450 operators under its wing and setting the goal of creating a single federal cellular cellular network of the IMT-MC-450 standard (CDMA2000 1X technology). Skylink had EV-DO technology, 10 times faster than the new GPRS. SkyLink is becoming popular among corporate customers who have built a business with the help of wireless technologies - so mobile communication has seriously come to the service of offices.
Skylink business internet advertising, very cool
SkyLink advertised sometimes unusual benefits :-)
GPRS quickly changed to 2.5G and 3G networks, operators significantly expanded the range of services for businesses - now they were voice packages, packages for SMS sending to customers, and expensive E1 digital stream, which was a salvation for offices that did not reach the wired Internet major providers. Specific services also appeared: M2M (services for “communicating” machines and controlling their states), GPS services (beacons, employee detection systems in the field). Unfortunately, these services have not received wide popularity, but their importance is extremely high - they became the forerunner of the development of IoT, in which telecom operators have yet to play a huge role.
In 2011, a Beeline study showed that in cities with a population of over one million, 86% of employees provide corporate cellular communications — in the form of compensation, corporate tariffs, or wage increases. It was an undoubted success.
But how he positioned the benefits for the Tele2 business in 2013 (there was a series of commercials):
Today, mobile operators continue to actively develop services for the corporate segment, but the main priority remains for voice traffic and data transmission (4G). A business can get cloud services, integrated solutions with virtual PBXs and equipment, online cash registers and even business services (accounting, CRM, office offers). But this seems to be a bit of a dead end - to create part of the services, ready-made solutions of third parties (vendors, developers) are used, as a result of which the performance and quality control is eroded.
The story does not end there.
We are on the verge of introducing 5G - it is planned to launch commercial segments of the network in the USA in the fall, the standard was tested at the Olympics in Pkhenchkhane. In the B2C segment, operators are taking a lot of steps: bank cards have already been launched, telemedicine is developing, subsidized devices have entered the trend again, we all have mobile Internet in our hands with private and business mailboxes and instant messengers. In general, the world has long been in our pocket.
Sometimes you can stumble upon materials predicting the imminent decline of mobile communication. Of course, this is largely marketing, not visionary. Cellular has a huge foundation for development, which lies in the core value - a well-established and well-established network with intelligible business models and coverage in fact almost across the globe. The network is getting better from year to year, coverage is increasing, speed is increasing. As a result, this sustainable infrastructure underlies the future.
Of course, we are not telecom operators, but we are a B2B business, and now we can already assume how events will develop.
- Mobile communications will continue to fit into the information and physical security of companies.
- Operators will look for profits from geolocation - for example, use it to deliver advertising, push notifications, and transfer information to users.
- Mobile communication will continue to be the channel for transmission and consumption of video content both in the private sphere and in business.
- Cell phones will fit the needs of the IoT - they will be monitors, transmitters, control systems for complex security solutions, tracking, surveillance, etc.
- M2M (data exchange between devices and machines) should be developed (so far it is 3% of connections in mobile networks).
- Virtual telecom operators (MVNO) will be created in collaboration with large companies, banks, etc. This will provide huge opportunities for business and users. For example, Tele2 is developing a draft of a virtual operator with Sberbank.
- Cell phones will become the control centers of mobile offices and employees - many of these tools are already provided for, development is not far off.
However, on the way to deep integration with business objectives, operators should remember not only marketing, but also that business is much more important than colorful advertising, expensive events and discounts - about security. Attacks can be made in several directions: on the infrastructure side of the operator (and we have witnessed massive information leaks), in the communication channel (active interception through radio frequency scanning), and even hidden installation of malware is now easier than ever - subscribers endlessly download and update the application.
From the first day of its existence, cellular communication was at the service of business, it still stands, and this friendship will only be stronger, because nothing can replace our mobility, speed, convenient tariffs and almost always high standards of service.
We congratulate all those involved, past and present, amateurs and professionals, and traditionally repeat the favorite toast: “For communication without marriage!”
Let there be a connection.
☛ With you, the RegionSoft CRM CRM development team was nostalgic - we have been on the Russian market for 17 years and have seen the phenomena described live.
☛ The superhero of the modern Telegram connection is alive, so subscribe to our channel about CRM and thoughts .
☛ During the work on the publication, the website http://sernam.ru and the archive of the journal “Technologies and Communication” helped us a little to refresh our memory .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/354910/
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