CBOSSyz Yield Zones technology is an effective tool which enables an operator to provide its subscribers with the unique opportunity to make calls at discounts dynamically varying according to cell traffic, time and day.
SYSTEM OPERATION
The size of a discount may depend on any combination of the following factors:
- Zone of service provisioning – a logical union of telecom company’s cells can be set as a condition.
- Load on a base station – a set of load ranges, for example, ‘load between 50% and 60%’ can be used as a condition. As it is almost impossible to get the actual load on the base station during a call, estimated values are applied. Forecast is pre-calculated based on the statistics of the load during certain periods (e.g., hours and days of week) for a large period of time (usually, several weeks).
- Time of service provisioning –any set of intervals (time group) can be applied as a condition, for example: weekends; weekdays, from 8 p.m. till 11 p.m.; 2011.05.16; etc.
- Alarms (if any) – type of alarm received from a base station can be set as a condition.
A discount is used as an additional price modifier in a subscriber’s rate plan, i.e., it can be in any way combined with all other conditions for basic price change: type of connection (voice, SMS, data), kind of connection (ONNET, long-distance, international), etc.
For example, you can combine conditions in such a way that a discount will be granted only for outgoing ONNET voice calls if there are no discounts in the form of bonus minutes.
The following scenario is standard for the subscriber using the technology:
- The subscriber finds out from mass media or other sources that a marketing campaign is held.
- He/she becomes its participant through one of the telecom company’s customer services: usually, via USSD request, call, or SMS to a dedicated number. Once the campaign is launched, the actual size of the discount provided for the cell, where the subscriber is located, can be sent to a mobile phone display by CBS (Cell Broadcast Service). This can be both a way to notify participating subscribers and an additional channel for attracting new subscribers.
- When making a call and before a connection is established, the subscriber receives USSD message with the discount size.
- The subscriber makes the call and receives the discount.
It should be noted that, apart from notification of a discount size sent to a mobile phone display, telecom operators can provide information to their subscribers in many other ways. For example:
- interactive map of discount distribution on a telecom operator’s website;
- sending monthly SMS saying how much the subscriber saved last month thanks to using the service;
- providing details in a bill, etc.
KEY FEATURES
Telecom operators using this technology are provided with the following functionality:
- Arrangement and launch of effective marketing campaigns with flexible rules for creating discounts.
- Automatic notification of the discount size:
continuously, through CBS;
by sending USSD message during a call;
by sending SMS on the total discount by the results of the month.
- Specifying options for merging cells into zones for each marketing campaign. A zone can be created from a file of a special format.
- Import of network cell data (updating the existing cell data).
- Auto loading of data on base station load.
- Viewing statistics of the base station load and discounts used.
- Specifying parameters (weight factors) for the mechanism of cell load estimation based on the statistics.
- Creating a complex set of estimated load ranges to be used as discount-granting conditions.
- Creating complex time groups to be used as discount-granting conditions.
- Generating various reports on the cell load and discounts granted.
INTEGRATION
To enable subscriber notification of the size of granted discounts, the service can be integrated with third-party CBS system.