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All wireless carriers in Canada now offer some
form of mobile access to the Internet through their digital wireless
phones. While
the interface is simple–alphanumeric text and plain graphics on your
phone's little screen–the actual Internet content ranges from text
messaging to news, finance, directory and mapping services. Useful
stuff and, most importantly, available to clients virtually anywhere
they might be.
There's no question that Telus Mobility clients are taking
advantage of the services on our mobile Pocket Web. Its ease of use,
wide range of content (we now have more than 100 top content
providers) and everywhere availability have boosted hits on our
Pocket Web service to more than 25 million per week. But from our
experience to date, access to business and financial information
often pales in the face of good old-fashioned fun.
Playing games
Of all the wireless Web services we offer, gaming has had the
quickest takeup. Our efforts to grow gaming traffic, and make it
pay, are good lessons for marketing the wireless Web in general.
Market researchers Gartner Dataquest of Stamford, Conn. say the
number of wireless gamers across North America will top just 200,000
this year, but will grow to 14 million by 2004. North American
wireless gaming revenues are expected to top US$300 million (C$469.4
million) by 2004, up from less than US$700,000 (C$1.1 million) in
2001.
While we're seeing great strides in the phone interface–bigger
screens, colour screens and, soon, greatly increased wireless data
speeds–current wireless games are simple text or limited-graphics
offerings. But here's the key: You can play them right on your phone
virtually wherever you might be, in the subway, in your livingroom
or in a doctor's waiting room.
 Atomic
Dove was designed to boost interest in gaming and the wireless
Web
It's that combination of the inherent mobility–play anywhere,
anytime–with the interactivity of the wireless phone that makes for
its unique and growing attraction. The games may be simple, but
gamers are drawn by the opportunity to compete directly against
other players right across Canada, and even send their counterparts
immediate text messages to razz them about a victory, commiserate on
a loss or just get acquainted off the playing field. We're seeing a
new community of dedicated mobile players building across the
country.
Our national Pocket Play wireless Web gaming tournament, based on
the game AtomicDove (http://www.atomicdove.com/), is the first of its
kind in Canada and we believe North America. The cash prizes in the
tournament aren't huge–$2,000 in total–but the idea was to involve
serious and rookie wireless gamers alike in a cross-Canada
tournament to increase not only revenue but general interest in
gaming and the wireless Web. The average number of games per player
per month jumped from 20 when the tournament started last Nov. 5 to
about 40 games per player during the tournament period. And, while
underlining gaming's popularity, this has shown our clients are
willingly paying to play.
Paying games
One of the fundamental issues with the wireless Web is how you
get people to pay for it. In Canada, unlike Japan and many parts of
Europe, most desktop Internet users virtually never have to pay for
the specific content they select. However, the wireless Web adds an
infinitely valuable element: mobility and ubiquitous availability of
content. Getting the right content, that both attracts users and is
good enough for them to pay for, is the challenge.
In Japan, wireless Web powerhouse NTT DoCoMo of Tokyo has 60% of
that country's wireless phone market, and two-thirds of the
company's 37 million clients have signed up for its i-mode wireless
Web service. Apart from the fact that the Japanese are quick to jump
on mobile gadgets, and the country's minimal desktop Internet
penetration made a jump to mobile easy, DoCoMo also made a wise
decision. It actually charges users for the ability to access games
and other content, meaning revenue for itself but also very
crucially for its content providers.
As The Economist put it in a recent article on the mobile
Internet: "There is a growing waiting list of content providers
awaiting DoCoMo's approval for their sites. That wealth of content
attracts users who, in turn, attract more content. The result is a
virtuous circle."
Telus Mobility has taken the same approach by becoming the first
wireless company in North America to introduce a Pay Per Use model
for the wireless Web on both our postpaid and prepaid phones. In
other words, we charge per play, rather than per minute, as our
competitors do.
With Pay Per Use, clients select the services they want and know
what they'll pay for them. We offer our online content partners new
revenue-sharing options for their best content, such as AtomicDove,
making them that much more eager to continue developing the high-end
services our clients will proactively select and pay for. And that
completes the virtuous circle.
ROB BLUMENTHAL is vice-president of products and services at
Telus Mobility in Toronto. | 
