With a month to go until World Telemedia Marbella gets underway on the 18-20 October, it is interesting to note how many issues there are to be debated at the show – and just how many of them are hitting the headlines.
Project 30 and Project Slimline are both likely to shake up PRS, charge to mobile and Payforit in the UK by early 2017 and are could see carrier billing taking its place at the top table with other mobile payment tools in the mainstream. About time too.
Likewise, moves by Fonix to get carrier billing widely used on Playstation Network and Xbox Live show that if the brand wanting to use charge to mobile is big enough, then you can make it happen. Expect to hear more of these sorts of big brand deals in the coming months and expect to hear much more about it in at World Telemedia.
Similarly, OTT messaging is in the news again. As we saw in the last newsletter, SMS still has a massive role to play in digital commerce, but OTT messaging – Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and so on – are chomping at its heals.
Now OTT has come under fire for the rising levels of spam associated with it – never a truer indication that something is a player than it getting hammered with spam – and it is already starting to undermine its effectiveness as a marketing and comms channel for brands, warns research from the MEF.
This issues too is going to tax Phonepay Plus here in the UK and regulators elsewhere. Who, exactly is responsible for policing these messaging services if they are being used by brands to individuals? It is a thorny topic that will be at the forefront of debate at World Telemedia as the industry from around the world looks at OTT and SMS and how the two can work together.
It is also likely to come up in the extensive Country Update workshops being run by Empello. These give an excellent insight into the dos and don’ts of many overseas markets – and will hopefully be able to answer tricky questions about who makes the rules around these new and interesting services.
So if you haven’t booked your ticket for Marbella yet, then get on and do it: it promises to be an excellent event with some really thorny issues to get stuck into with your colleagues. Plus the weather’s nice.
But don’t take my word for it, take a look at what some of the top speakers, exhibitors and delegates have to say about why they are going to be there.
