Leading operators are taking advantage of the revenue opportunities cloud numbers have to offer, and the rest of the industry needs to take note.
No longer satisfied with being the middlemen, industry-leading voice operators are expanding their role and venturing into cloud number ownership. This gives them control over the entire cloud numbers journey, from origin to termination, and empowers them to access new revenue streams.
In this blog, we discuss why this shift is happening now, and why operators need to act quickly if they want to benefit from the new value chain.
Voice has always learned to evolve to keep pace with the market. The latest shift is thanks to the rise of cloud numbering. Brought about by unified communication and collaboration tools (UCC) like Microsoft Teams, the cloud telephony services market is expected to grow from $23.2 billion in 2023, to $42.7 billion by 2032.
Traditionally, wholesalers would carry these numbers, but enterprise providers would own and trade them. Now, operators are looking to bring this in-house.
By buying and selling international numbers, wholesalers can shed the role of middleman and own 100% of the cloud numbering process, and the profit. They can determine the rates and earn money on any activity from this number, not just one part of the call. Plus, they have greater control over quality and issue management.
So, not only does having sole ownership of the numbering process tap into a new revenue stream which operators traditionally wouldn’t have touched, but it gives them the opportunity to provide an even better, more consolidated customer experience end to end.
In fact, this reflects a wider trend in the operator’s fight for relevance and competition: convergence. PwC calls convergence a strategy that “can simultaneously drive a higher share of wallet, increase customers’ loyalty, extend their lifetime value, and reduce churn". The moral is that operators should look for ways to incrementally infiltrate more voice-adjacent services, and cloud numbering is a great place to start.
A case study: How we increased a carrier’s business with cloud numbers
Despite the clear opportunity, operators have been hesitant to take the leap into cloud numbering.
This is partly because they don't have the infrastructure to handle the entire numbering process at scale. For example, organizations need to provision numbers through a manual sales call, which makes for a longwinded sales cycle. Plus, the number lifecycle is often managed in Excel sheets, which is both inefficient and provides poor visibility.
The other barrier is knowledge. Operators may not have some of the expertise needed to manage this process, such as number management compliance.
Together, these truths have traditionally made it difficult for telcos to provide virtual cloud numbers profitably. To truly take advantage of cloud numbers, operators would need to adapt their toolset to improve the efficiency of these processes and introduce the mechanisms for operations like billing, routing, and pricing.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t need to be a huge technology investment. Deploying a tool that can handle multiple voice services and is scalable or adaptable is a future-proofed approach that will establish new revenue streams, while still making the most of, if not improving, your existing investments.
For example, Telarix’s cloud numbers solution automates the operational management of cloud numbers. It can be added on top of your existing systems, and it can also handle multiple other voice services like RCS and SMS.
We already have several customers using this solution and, with very little disruption, they’ve been able to facilitate and monetize a new service.
Owning the cloud number service is not a ground-breaking transformation. But it’s an essential step operators need to take towards shedding the ‘dumb pipe’ label and gaining control over their own margins.
The revenue potential to effort ratio is great, the steps to implement the infrastructure are clear, and leaders are already showing the value it will bring to the operator market.
So, what are operators waiting for? The first to market will gain the most competitive advantage from the shift, and they need to take action now.
Get in touch to understand how you can empower a cloud numbers service.