Teles lost the 'battle' against WhatsApp and Skype

Prediction from Informa Telecoms & Media, released on Monday, 20/01, says that operators lost the 'window of opportunity' to compete with the OTTs as WhatsApp and Skype. Also according to the consultancy, 2014 will be a decisive year for the future of Joyn, OTT service, launched as a counter attack to free OTTs and low global membership. In Brazil, for example, only Claro joined the global network.

According to the forecast of consulting, operators - aware that the battle is lost and there is no way to recover the users of free systems communicators - should not create more service to compete directly with the OTTs. The layout for this year, maintains & Media Informa, will be able to create offers profit from the use of these services OTTs. And the consulting projects that the Joyn - an initiative created by the GSMA, the body that brings together telcos, to combat the loss of revenue in the SMS and MMS with the OTTs communication - will have a decisive 2014.

The idea with the GSMA Joyn was to create a common and interoperable multimedia messaging service, something like Skype or WhatsApp operators, which act as the evolution of SMS and MMS services. But the initiative had poor adherence. Late last year, a survey conducted by companies and Mobilesquared Tyntec with 40 operators - showed that only 7% of respondents consider that Joyn as the solution to combat the threat of message and called over-the-top services (OTT) .

The impact of free OTTs services like SMS and MMS mobilizes businesses. Futurecom 2013 Acision released a study showing that Brazilians would be willing to join the Joyn, 80% of respondents in Brazil would use such a service since it was free. In Argentina, 60% would use, while Mexico is the least responsive, with the acceptance of 40% of their respondents.

Also in Brazil, the study also showed that SMS coexists with instant messaging services, as consumers use each application according to the groups of interaction and the needs of the moment. At the time of the study, 77% of respondents reported using SMS and instant messaging apps and in addition, 84% have two or more of these applications installed on the phone.