Ovum: Telecoms Starting to Embrace Big Trust

Top Predictions for Big Data in 2014

What if a significant number of large corporations, perhaps within one data-rich industry, signed onto the concept of putting people ahead of analytics, and a set of principles supporting this concept? Rather than keeping Big Data analytics opaque, and leaving their customers to guess and/or suspect that they may be overcharged or otherwise unfairly treated based on data collected about them, these organizations could turn control of that data over to the customers to examine, verify and correct, if necessary.

It’s a concept that Ovum is calling Big Trust, and this week’s Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona has produced examples of how it could benefit telecom service providers and their customers.

While the argument for turning upside-down the approach to who owns which data may prove attractive to a consumer base that is increasingly mistrustful and better informed about previously unknown uses of customer data, especially by and through their telecommunications providers, it’s not just a 180-degree turn, pointed out TelecomTV.com, before MWC began. It’s more circular: The end goal, of course, for such an approach remains increased revenue opportunities.

Be that as it may, the long-term potential for cementing goodwill and loyalty among customers has some telecom providers, such as Deutsche Telekom, looking for more and more ways to become the telecom “knight in shining armour for consumers,” as described in a piece at Telecoms.com.

Ovum Principal Analyst Mark Little highlighted these additional “big trust” moves from day one of MWC:

• “In her MWC keynote, Chua Sock Koong, Group CEO for Singtel, said that a ‘key way operators can avoid disintermediation is to leverage their position of trust with customers in a climate of increasing concern over data privacy.’”
• “Swisscom’s partnership with WISeKey was announced providing Trusted Encrypted Personal Clouds stored in Switzerland. WISeID says their Personal Cloud ‘provides trusted digital identities via mobile and desktop apps for individuals and corporations performing confidential transactions on open Internet.'”
• “Orange makes an industry-wide call to action regards digital trust; to be more transparent about data usage and sharing, calling for tools to allow consumers to control their data, and for MNO’s to be the consumer champion.”
• “Today saw the launch of Blackphone, the latest in ‘counter-measure’ chic from the Silent Circle and Geeksphone joint venture, offering a full suite of applications giving worldwide users unprecedented control over privacy and security.”