Just three years after Netscape enabled the commercial Web in 1994, cellular network providers leapt on the platform and introduced the wireless application protocol (WAP) to bring the wonders of the Internet to mobile devices. Faced with the long-term prospect of flattening voice revenue, rich mobile data services delivered over the wireless Internet presented an attractive proposition to increase average revenue per customer (ARPU) and reduce customer churn.

Evans

As cellular network providers began to launch mobile Internet services they looked to replicate the success of AOL, the biggest Web player of the day. AOL, like many of the early Internet service providers, had been successful in developing a broad and deep range of subscription-based online services that were protected by a “walled garden.” The metaphor described the Internet service provider’s ability to manage the users’ experience by maintaining control over the content and services available.

While this model worked initially, the walled garden approach is now less acceptable as both PC users and mobile subscribers demand the choice and freedom that now defines the 2.0 era of the World Wide Web.

Today, mobile subscribers want to replicate their online experience on their cell phones and the walled gardens that cellular network providers spent the last decade building are beginning to collapse. Although the wireless industry has overcome many early obstacles to mobile data growth – handset design, pricing, and network speeds – it is still struggling to deliver a user experience conducive to significant mobile data growth.

Navigation can be challenging. For the most part, consumers still have a limited choice of services that can be easily accessed. A less than positive user experience has not surprisingly limited the effect of mobile data services on ARPU. In some cases, the revenue from non-SMS data services represents only single-digit percentages of carriers’ revenue.

The threat to mobile network operators and their restricted service offering is growing. Google’s Android platform and Yahoo! Go threaten to steal customers away to more user-friendly environments. Apple previewed a mobile data future when it rolled out the iPhone. In that world, the network provider will no longer dictate the user experience and instead, Apple and its iPhone will be in the driver’s seat.

Providers are beginning to acknowledge that the best way to open their walled gardens is by adopting on-device portals (ODPs). The simplicity of ODPs is their trump card.  By quickly and nimbly delivering new services in an era of mass personalization, ODPs directly improve the user experience. Furthermore, by providing a framework to deliver mobile widgets, they enable a significantly broader range and depth of services.  ODPs therefore redefine the parameters of the walled garden by enabling operators to create a balance between maintaining control and offering a personalized and intuitive experience for the subscriber.

Online, the explosion of social networking, open-source widgets and embedded browsers has driven the need for data mobility and user choice – a dynamic that is translating itself into the mobile world. Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with helping invent the Web, said in a recent public appearance that the Internet is “a sandbox where people can [play and] exercise their creativity. It’s very important to keep the Web universal as we merge the Internet with mobile.”

For the mobile Web to emulate the success of Web 2.0, the industry needs to understand and embrace the dynamism and freedom users expect on the Internet, while being mindful of the additional requirements of mobile communications.

ODPs enhance the user experience by offering a customizable a la carte menu of services and a more responsive experience than many WAP decks. Enabling technologies such as ODP applications has proved particularly apt in increasing service adoption by providing a launch point for subscribers to discover compelling data services. These portal applications present the user with a clear, easy to navigate and visually engaging interface that helps build consumer confidence in accessing and consuming data services. Critically, this not only stimulates repeat use of the content available on the portal, but also helps drive traffic to the WAP deck by encouraging users to explore data services.

By striking the all-important balance, ODPs can drive ARPU by supporting a number of attractive revenue models for cellular network providers including the almost limitless potential of mobile advertising. The mobile phone’s ubiquity in personal lives has allowed network providers to become the custodians of arguably the most influential communication medium available to advertisers.

Such a situation provides network operators with the opportunity to unlock significant new revenue streams, creating a greener garden than ever, if they can maintain control of the user experience.

Evans is chief technology officer for SurfKitchen.