US wireless service providers agree on mobile best practices

"AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless together serve the vast majority of all US wireless customers," said MMA president and CEO Mike Wehrs. "By working with the MMA to create an industry-standard set of guidelines, these four carriers are playing a pivotal role in enabling the mobile marketing opportunity for years to come. The cost reductions of US$200 million or more clearly proves beneficial to the entire industry, especially given today's economic challenges. We definitely see this as a win-win solution for the entire ecosystem."

This industry-first agreement is a milestone toward the continued growth of mobile marketing, a dramatic reduction in the costs of launching mobile marketing campaigns, faster time to market for campaigns and improved consumer satisfaction by improving the consistency and efficiency of mobile marketing campaigns across the four major US wireless service providers.

The agreement underscores the industry's commitment to work towards standardised marketing practices that will improve consumer satisfaction and understanding of mobile marketing campaigns.

Additional help

In addition to the four largest US wireless service providers, there was substantial help in securing this agreement from the major aggregators, brands and content owners. In specific, VeriSign, Neustar, Limbo, and Thumbplay, all played critical roles in the process.

Under the agreement, the four companies, all MMA members, will incorporate their individual mobile marketing guidelines and codes of conduct, known as "carrier playbooks", into a unified document to be maintained by the MMA. As a result, the operational efficiencies for the industry is upward of US$200 million annually. The MMA will work with each carrier, as well as other industry partners, to craft the unified best practices, which will have five key benefits:

• Promote a consistent consumer experience including standardising key consumer disclosures
  
• Enhance efficiencies in running short code programmes
  
• Accelerate the time to market for mobile campaigns
  
• Ensure monitoring programmes and audit results are more consistent
  
• Reduce operational costs across the mobile marketing ecosystem

The MMA's Consumer Best Practices Committee will review the first draft of the document in early April 2009. The document will be finalised and released to the public by the end of June.

Customer experience

"For Verizon Wireless, it all comes down to customer experience. The MMA's approach will help provide understanding and set expectations, which will lead to improved experience," said Dave Burmester, director, messaging services, Verizon Wireless.

"As a leader in mobile marketing, Sprint believes that the MMA best practices are critical for the health of the mobile media ecosystem, starting, most importantly, with providing customers with a consistent, user-friendly experience," said Len Barlik, vp of wireless and wireline services at Sprint Nextel.

"The MMA's unified best practices are an important step in streamlining the processes and reducing barriers and cost to enter the direct-to-consumer market," said Venetia Espinoza, T-Mobile director of mobile apps and partner programs. "These changes are important for the ecosystem but will also foster the development of new and innovative mobile services for consumers."

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