Don't take the traffic toll! China Mobile's 5G video call trial commercial, Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi sit together

Source of this article: Time Weekly Author: Tao Yajie

In order to attract more users, China Mobile, the big brother of the communications industry with 387 million 5G package customers, continues to innovate.

Recently, China Mobile mainly promotes 5G video call products, and the industry chain partners include Huawei, ZTE, iFLYTEK, vivo, OPPO, Honor, Xiaomi, etc.

China Mobile revealed to the "Times Weekly" reporter that this is a new generation of call products launched based on the network environment, making calls more intelligent, visual and interactive. "China Mobile is also the first telecom operator in the world to launch a trial commercial trial of 5G new calls."

According to relevant information, during the trial commercial period, 5G video calls are billed for the duration of time (by the number of minutes), and no traffic fees are charged. From May 1, the number of voice minutes in the 5G package will be upgraded to the number of minutes that can be used for new 5G calls, which can be used for audio and video calls.

"I haven't made a phone call for a long time, and I usually contact others through WeChat voice and video." Yang Qian, who is engaged in Internet work in Beijing, sighed, opened the address book, and looked at the string of numbers, which was really familiar and strange.

Because users have more demand for voice and video, Yang Bo, an expert in the field of communications, told the Times Weekly reporter that operators try to tap new service scenarios and profit growth points, so they launch 5G new call services to try to pull users back to the address book.

Does not account for traffic, one-click video

The first question in front of users is, what are the characteristics and advantages of 5G new calls?

China Mobile revealed that compared with traditional calls in 2G, 3G and 4G network environments, 5G new calls are new in "faster, clearer, smarter and wider". Compared with Internet voice, 5G new calls will also be more stable and convenient. Stability lies in the stable quality of the call, and the telephone call in is not interrupted; convenience lies in the native mobile terminal, the dial pad can dial video calls, without downloading APP and Mini Programs. In general, 5G ultra-clear video calls have four advantages: ultra-low latency, ultra-clear picture quality, no traffic, and one-click video.

On the most concerned tariff issue, China Mobile said that since May 1, 5G new calls can directly use the voice duration included in the package, without wasting traffic.

Yang Qian took stock of the existing 5G packages. "58 bucks a monthly subscription, including 300 minutes of call time and 5 G of traffic. The traffic can generally be used up, but the call time can be more than 100 minutes left. ”

In Yang Qian's view, 5G new calls not only save traffic costs, but also do not waste phone bills, and there are indeed desirable points. But I am used to using WeChat to make audio and video calls, and even if operators have new services, they will not change their positions for a while.

An operator person who did not want to be named told the Time Weekly reporter that it is difficult to change the habits of users, and 5G new calls must come up with a competitive business model to impress users. For example, the tariff is preferential or even free, and the user experience is better than the existing communication software.

Extend from the B-end to the C-end, and break the "pipelined" dilemma

Yang Bo pointed out that in the current environment, 5G new calls are likely to target government and enterprise customers, and drive C-end users from the B-end. For example, he said, if water and electricity payment and government affairs consulting support 5G new calls in the future, then the habits of C-end users will also change.

In fact, China Mobile has already laid out in this regard. It is reported that the 5G new call video customer service 10086 function has been opened to mobile customers in some cities and cities in 25 provinces, covering multiple mobile business scenarios such as basic business investigation, high-sensitivity service authorization, and remote operation guidelines. In addition, 5G video cloud customer service has served more than 2,000 customers, covering government affairs, finance and so on. Among them, more than 700 customers are applied in the field of government affairs, helping customers to upgrade from "running at most once" to "not running once".

In Yang Bo's view, the operator's move is intended to break the "pipelined" crisis.

For a long time, there has been a very popular term in the communication industry - OTT. OTT is an abbreviation for "Over The Top" and refers to the development of various video and data services services based on the open Internet by Internet companies bypassing operators. OTT services continue to innovate, so that the value brought by data traffic continues to shift to OTT service providers, and telecom operators encounter the trouble of being "piped".

At Mobile World Congress 2021 in Barcelona, Deutsche Telekom CEO Hortgis suddenly asked the attendees: "Is it fair that WhatsApp creates more value for itself by increasing the data load, but network operators have to pay more for it?" He further added that "80 percent of the traffic is generated by OTT vendors, but they don't pay a dime for using infrastructure or expanding costs." ”

"In recent years, the squeeze of OTT enterprises on traditional operators is very obvious, which has greatly challenged operators' original SMS, voice and international telephone services." Yang Bo pointed out that operators have always had the crisis of becoming a traffic pipeline for Internet enterprises, including the Fetion previously launched by China Mobile and the Yixin service launched by China Telecom and NetEase, all of which are attempts to fight against OTT companies, but unfortunately the effect is not good.

Today, China Mobile has made even greater changes, allowing users to instantly connect with friends thousands of miles away on the dial-up interface. In this regard, the above-mentioned operators pointed out that operators should also continue to innovate, learn From Internet thinking, do a good job in user experience, and attract customers to return. Looking to the future, voice and video calls are not necessarily the "patents" of operators or WeChat, every APP and every game can be realized from a technical point of view, and 5G will inevitably be applied in a wider range.

(At the request of the interviewee, Yang Qian is a pseudonym)