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Kelvin Fangkai manages the Data Hosting Services for Huawei Technologies. In this interview with BEN UZOR JR, he talks about the company’s Service Delivery Platform (SDP). It is an end-to-end business solution, which enables telecommunications operators to build their own Digital Shopping Mall and facilitate service innovation combining Telecom and Internet services to deliver a converged experience with lower Total cost of ownership (TCO) and faster service time to market. The platform has also been fully endorsed by the industry; according to Gartner’s market analysis report for 2010, Huawei ranks first in global SDP market share.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Kelvin Fangkai. Actually, I have been in Nigeria for three years and I got into the industry since I came in 2011. Right now I am in charge of operations of value added services which we provide to customers, with MTN as the biggest. I had worked with one of the major telecoms operators in China for four years and have three years of technology background. I know how things work in that space. I then switched to marketing while I was with the telecoms operator.
Then I joined Huawei and began to work with the hosting and revenue share team. I started the new business model and service innovation while also engaged in worldwide hosting centre construction especially the Nigerian site. We have this infrastructure to help our customer, MTN to implement their platforms at a faster roll out rate. In 2012, I started service development to customers where I sold about four VAS platforms and right now I work with service operations where we help our customers to meet their business goals. These are the kind of E2E solutions we provide.
What has been your experience operating in Nigeria’s mobile content and VAS segment?
We have seen the MTN callertunez make a very big impact within the Nigerian market. This is a ring back tune service that provides major content in this market. The other content carried by Short Message Service (SMS) Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or the smartphone apps provides more channels for people to access information and this is the weak part of the market right now which explains why we availed MTN of our service delivery platforms.
MTN is the first Telco to enter the market and provide new services for subscribers and we have found the experience very useful to us. We can see services like the mobile newspaper gaining traction which is MMS based as opposed to the WAP based which was in the market before. The experience has been interesting and worthwhile with greater potential of growth with MTN leading the way.
How would you assess current level of local mobile applications development?
The local apps aren’t doing badly at all. Take the mobile karaoke app, Songstar for example. We have seen a huge number of people embrace this app and they love it. Interesting in China, we have a similar app. It allows people to sing from anywhere- restaurant, bus; it’s a lovely idea. The social media and communication apps like BBM are big. In China, we have WeChat, which I found out has also been launched in Nigeria already. This is a good development.
Sadly, Nigeria hasn’t latched on to the gaming segment of the app industry. There are lots of gaming applications in the market but no local content from Nigeria. The business model is also interesting – you can have free games that allow people to use the game for free; and then after a while they pay to continue to use the game or to purchase something in the game. Mobile app developers in Nigeria can tap into the potentials available in the gaming segment.
In my short time here, I have found out that Nigerian app developers are very creative. They have shown me very interesting demos – quiz games for children, language learning apps. The User Interface is also easy for customers to understand. In China, they have the technological edge. They know how to maximise the smartphones, hence you find developers there building solutions that help people get the best out of their devices. We have an application that helps you to call a Taxi and make the payment to the driver. All you do is to send a request and the nearest driver to your location is there to take you out and you pay into the driver’s account without paying physical cash.
This is a very convenient app that can also be deployed in this market. We have a service, Infosearch, currently running on the MTN network – you dial 411 on your phone, you can get a taxi drivers information with which you can contact a cab driver. In the future, all you would need is to just send a text message, the driver would contact you and the payment is done via mobile money.
Would you say Nigeria has the local capacity to effectively support the growth and development of mobile content and applications?
Definitely. In fact, Nigerian content is being sold to a lot of countries in the West African sub-region. There is a Service Provider who just sold its content to Ivory Coast. Our customers in Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, Togo have urged us to introduce Nigerian content providers to their markets. The capability to create content is here – to create the information that people need. Nigeria also has the capability to develop services. I have no doubt that the market would expand via the efforts of these local SPs.
How did your relationship with MTN begin?
This Service Delivery Platform relationship between MTN and Huawei started in 2012. It’s a Group signed contract- MTN Group signed the contract while we implement the platform across its sub-networks with the biggest one being MTN Nigeria. Interestingly, MTN Nigeria is the first sub-network to launch the SDP across the 14 sub-networks that we cater to.
Could you describe the nature of the SDP?
The acronym, SDP means Service Delivery Platform. You have the service which all mobile users enjoy. There is also the platform that helps to deliver service to end users. In the early days, operators used short message gateways to help the SPs deliver their value added services to the subscribers. All the SMS gateway did was to deliver the message but right now the SPs have more requirements that the SMS gateway can’t handle. For example, what if as a SP, I want a discounted service, or bundle a group of services as a package or, in need of a Service Level control?
The question then is can your platform deliver these? The SDP is a unified platform that meets all of these requirements with unparalleled convenience. In terms of the relationship, here is how it works: you have MTN in the centre, Huawei provides the platform to the Telco while it cooperates with its partners, the SPs. MTN provides everything while we smoothen the relationship between all stakeholders by providing managed services to it.
MTN is the leading provider of premium value added services in Nigeria, how will this advantage impact on the development of mobile applications and related content for mobile users?
Many users don’t have a lot of resources. They may not know how to fully access information. The more information is available to people the better the quality of their lives. It’s just common sense. What we have found out in Nigeria is that a lot of people don’t yet enjoy this access to information. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, MTN uses its platform and resources to help people, which explains why they are always the first to launch innovative services as we have seen with Afrinolly, Dobox and others. Some of the services MTN has launched may be profitable in the short term, or never turn a profit, however, they continue at it to help provide information and content for end users. This is great in my opinion.
How do you keep up with the trends in the industry?
Right now, we can hear the sounds. The smartphone has become very popular. Also in the next two to three years, the feature phone would also remain popular. Based on this, we are developing smartphone based platforms but then we won’t abandon the feature phone market. We need to continue to innovate, that is how we stay in the game. For example, there are applications based on Interactive voice response (IVR), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, USSD which can also deliver content and information to the end user.
How do you think Nigeria can build more capacity in this area of specialisation?
There is a fresh graduate in Hosting Service, which is my department, who is currently doing his NYSC with us. This guy is a raw talent. Our technical teams can communicate with him smoothly on techie stuff and he has got a good knowledge base as a fast learner. His dream is to join the world biggest software company, Google. I look at that kind of guy, he’s got the capability and he’s just one out of many that I’ve encountered. They have got a bright future ahead of them. At Huawei, we help to hone their skills so that they gain the required expertise needed in their core areas.
As you might have noticed, the government is hosting a lot of innovation conferences. These are useful platforms for these developers to pull together and share experiences and knowledge. We would also like to provide our capabilities to help local companies grow their competencies and develop the industry. The SDP platform also has features to help them in this regard.
What structure have you put in place to share the experiences and expertise you have garnered working with major operators in the country’s telecoms sector?
At Huawei, we are very open and receptive to accommodating talented young people from various spheres. We want them to learn something from us. In Nigeria, we have two training centres. We also have local and remote resources. Our telepresence systems help you to communicate with experts in China or anywhere else on the globe and you can talk to them face to face via this network. We also have local teachers and invite leading experts from Dubai and other places to the annual developers’ conference which we sponsor to facilitate technology transfer.
What advice do you have for the government or corporate bodies in a bid to strengthen the local mobile application industry?
The regulatory body, the NCC is doing a phenomenal job here. The policy and regulatory environment is mature. For example, in China there was a mess in the industry. You had SPs in China collecting money from subscribers and yet the end users don’t get to experience the service or the user experience is poor. But in Nigeria, the NCC has controlled the sector and the customers are protected. I think that the Nigerian government needs to encourage the innovative ideas of the service providers.
Also, government could provide soft loans to developers and techie start-ups because we have found that lack of money and resources have been major impediments preventing many of them. Also, these start-ups can corporate with big players like MTN but government must build the environment that will encourage innovation.
How is Data shaping the profit and growth trajectory in the VAS segment?
Data can help to decrease the unit price of these services. The unit price for using data to access a particular content can be cheaper than when you try to access same via voice. As I mentioned earlier, we have Infosearch, a voice based content service but when you have an app or data based channel to help access the information, it will be cheaper. Right now when people want to find a hotel or restaurant, they call this service but in the future, it’s going to be an app on your phone which is convenient and cost effective. VAS services are also evolving to the new format.
Before now it was heavy on SMS. Currently, we provide MMS based service like the mobile newspaper. The benefit to the end user is that it provides more information in one message including picture and voice.
How would you describe MTN’s effort at building an ecosystem for VAS with SDP?
MTN has a very robust relationship with the SPs. They are also the largest network based on its subscriber base. These conditions indeed make them key enablers and major stakeholder in building an enduring ecosystem for VAS and other services. They are currently working at improving time to market, TTM for the SPs to help them to launch more services on their platform. They are also helping to establish a fair and competitive environment. In the future, there will be more SPs and they would need a level playing field to enter the terrain. With MTN, many SPs get massive promotions for their services which on their own they can’t afford or attain, thus creating awareness about these services and access for the end users. At Huawei, we provide a flexible payment system to both SPs and end users.
What business values does SDP offer to MTN and what does this mean for subscribers?
At Huawei, we will continue to use professional competence to improve the SDP platform in order to help MTN deliver a bold new digital world, which it has promised its subscribers. For the end users, what this means is that they won’t have problems of delayed services or unwarranted charges, or not being able to access the service they want. We would help MTN to improve the platform’s performance which allows it to focus on providing value to its subscribers. MTN is striving to improve customer experience and SDP allows them to do this.
