WhatsApp services in voice could be a major threat to mobile phone
operators, but it is too early to come to any conclusion on the impact of such
services of messaging service providers, said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO at
Norwegian telecom firm Telenor.
"This is an enormous threat, and an enormous
possibility," he told reporters at a news conference on the sidelines of
the Mobile World Congress event. "Voice over IP in the mobile space is a
more complex online service that needs to be online. I wish them good luck in
that," added Baksaas, who is also the chairman of GSMA, the global
industry body for GSM mobile operators.
His comments come a day after popular instant messaging app,
WhatsApp, was acquired by Facebook for about $19 billion. He said it will add
voice services to its messaging platform in the second quarter of 2014.
Mobile operators fear that the success of any such voice services
over the internet can severely dent voice revenue, which still account for
majority of the overall revenue pie for a telecom service provider.
But Baksaas pointed out that voice-over-internet
services will face enormous challenges in connectivity. "If their
(WhatsApp's) overall revenue stream shifts to that layer (internet), the
connectivity part of that equation is at risk, and without connectivity, you
can just forget realising everything on the IP (internet protocol) space,"
Baksaas said. "This arena is only just started to be debated. So, how it
will play out remains to be seen," he said.
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