VOXOX Blog

You’ve heard the phrase if you can’t beat them, join them. Well, telcos are taking this literally as many are shifting their focus from battling OTT services to partnering with them. In fact, an interest in providing OTT-type services is on the rise, with 36% of mobile operators partnering with OTT providers last year.

So, just why are telcos uniting with OTT services? Because competing with the features and competitive prices of OTT apps is nearly impossible for operators, but a partnership can prove to benefit their bottom line, as well as offer a few awesome perks to the people who keep them in business -- the consumer!

For the first time ever, more than half of the U.S. population owns a smartphone, giving operators much to smile about. More smartphone users means more calling and data plans and potential for increased revenue, but what happens when consumers bypass their carriers' services by using OTT apps? Operators lose money.  

OTT communications providers offer mobile apps that utilize an operator's infastructure and customer base to offer consumers text and phone access at a lower cost than most operators can offer. So, how can operators reclaim this lost revenue? With a partner of course! In an effort to show carriers just how beneficial an OTT partner can be, we've narrowed down the top 4 struggles operators face when their customers use OTT apps to bypass their services, and how they can overcome them by teaming with a partner.

OTT communications apps may sound like a super high tech term, but you probably use one of these every day. In fact, 276.8 million people used OTT apps on their smartphones in 2012, and by 2016 1.32 billion are projected to be saving money on their cell bills each month by putting these apps to work!

Over the last few years, the popularity of OTT services among mobile consumers has skyrocketed. Just how big is the market you wonder? Well, the experts over at mobilesquared, a leading provider of insight and intelligence on the mobile sector, have the answer.

Mobilesquared put together this 3-year-forecast outlining how the OTT services market will grow throughout 2017. The full report is chock full of interesting info and stats! We pulled a few of our favorites to give you an overview of just how many people are saving money and staying connected with OTT services like Voxox.

Here are our favorite 10 OTT services stats....

Mobile consumers love OTT services, and for good reason! Mobile OTT services like messaging and calling apps offer the same functionality as those from service providers, but they are typically much cheaper (or free!) and come with some awesome features that surpass the basic calling and SMS capabilities of traditional carriers.

In a customer’s mind, nothing is more off-putting and unprofessional than calling a business and receiving a full voicemail box, busy tone or worse -- having no answer at all. Fortunately, with new and improving cloud-based technology, even the smallest businesses can boast sophisticated phone systems like big Fortune 500s without breaking the bank. So, if you’re running a one-man show or have only a handfull of team members, how can you make sure your phone system is up to par? With a Hosted PBX solution.

Are you a small business owner who wants the benefits and functionality of a traditional office phone system without the costs or maintenance? Well, thanks to VoIP technology you can have your cake and eat it too by using a virtual PBX service!

Most of our favorite sites, applications and OTT services are available on our mobiles, but they probably didn’t start out that way. Take Facebook, Twitter and Voxox for example. These three networks launched on the web and crossed over to mobile due the soaring number of mobile users demanding on-the-go services. However, many businesses today are shifting their focus onto designing and developing for mobile first to stay ahead in a world with an increasingly mobile-centric consumer experience.    

If you’ve been following the Voxox blog, you already know a few great reasons to choose a virtual PBX solution for your small business phone service – cost savings, easy set-up, scalability, tons of features, etc. So, today we will focus on one special feature: telephone extension numbers and how they can help improve your business communications.

What exactly is a telephone extension number, anyway? It's a phone line connected to an internal phone system like a virtual PBX. Extensions allow multiple lines inside an office or within a business’ network to connect without each phone requiring a separate outside line. For larger businesses with a virtual PBX system, this set-up is a no-brainer, but even very small companies can benefit from phone extensions!

You don’t have to take on new employees or spend a fortune on fancy phone systems to make your small business look bigger – one place to start is with virtual numbers! Whether you're a one-person consultancy or a several-employee shop, virtual numbers have some powerful features that can help you convey that your business has a wide area of coverage, which may attract some new customers.