It Is Not that People Do Not Talk, It is That They Talk Using OTT

Like it or not, over the top apps now are becoming the standard way most applications are created and consumed on all networks.

The key issue, for mobile or fixed network service providers, is not whether that is trend, but more appropriately whether access providers participate in some way in the revenue generated by those apps.

In other words, whether access providers have any participation in  revenue is the issue, not whether OTT apps increasingly will dominate usage. The ideal scenario is that the access provider owns some percentage of the equity in important and leading OTT apps.

The more likely scenario is that an app provider has clear incentive to partner with a distributor, and is willing to consider some form of revenue sharing.

Some 26 percent of global smartphone customers in developed markets will make no traditional phone calls in a given week in 2016, predicts Deloitte. That provides one example of the important role now assumed by OTT apps.

It is not so much that smartphone owners do not talk at all, but that, when they do, they increasingly use an OTT app. Likewise, when messaging, that activity often will take place using an over the top social network.