1. Do I need to buy all of ClearSky’s services, or can I pick and choose?
Most of our clients purchase the entire “bundle” of services from ClearSky, including Multi-G Mobile Internet Gateway, SMS-C, MMS-C , Unified Media Center, ProVantage home deck management tool, RevShare for billing integration, and ProVision for subscriber management. You may, however, purchase only the services required to complete your data offering. The most popular optional services are the ProTrends BI analytics and reporting tool for WAP and content purchases, and DayPass Unlimited for 24-hour access to the mobile Web.
2. How quickly can I launch services after I sign the agreement with ClearSky?
The length of time needed to enable and test all services ranges from 4-10 weeks, depending on the specific services chosen, the availability of your technical staff, access to your third-party vendors, and our current workload. Exact milestones and completion dates are mutually determined during the initial “kick-off” call with each carrier client.
3. What equipment must I install on my side in order to take advantage of the ClearSky services?
All ClearSky services are offered as hosted solutions from our state-of-the-art data center in Orlando, FL. Therefore, our clients are not required to purchase or install any hardware, or purchase a software license.
4. How can I measure the success of my mobile data offerings?
Naturally, an increase in your overall data ARPU will tell you that your data services are selling, but maximizing revenue and profitability require further understanding of subscriber behavior. ProTrends BI is an interactive graphical tool that analyzes data traffic and shows subscribers’ browsing habits, what sites they visit, and what content they purchase. Results can be used to gauge the success of marketing efforts, identify key content providers, stop revenue leakage and much more.
5. What is the fee structure for ClearSky services?
Most ClearSky services are offered on a revenue share basis, i.e., you pay us a portion of the revenue that you charge your subscribers. Typically, there is also a one-time implementation fee that covers the direct costs of configuring your specific solution (e.g., creating carrier-branded home decks and Web sites for content discovery, setting up and testing VPN and network connectivity, and integrating to your pre-paid and/or post-paid billing platforms).
6. Can some or all of the mobile services be offered with my carrier’s brand?
ClearSky normally customizes all subscriber-facing mobile Internet and Web portals with your name, logo, colors and other branding elements. The costs are included in our standard implementation fee. The Web pages for desktop browsing of content are served from our data center, but are accessed from links on your normal company Web site.
7. How do we manage our mobile Web subscribers’ home decks?
The person you designate as your system administrator will have access to ClearSky’s ProVantage tool, a Web-based application used to set up and customize home decks. No technical skills are required to administer ProVantage due to its user-friendly interface. ProVantage allows the creation of an unlimited number of different home decks for different types of subscribers, e.g., teen, sports fan, soccer mom, business executive, Hispanic, etc.
8. How often is the content (ringback tones, ringtones, games, images, etc.) updated?
ClearSky uses the latest database management techniques to ingest and administer content from a large number of sources. Updates are scheduled every day, and most content is refreshed at least once per week.
9. Do my subscribers need to be provisioned for data access in order to buy pay-per-download content?
Using the “walled garden” concept, we can allow subscribers not provisioned on a data plan to access a limited number of Web sites. These are normally sites where subscribers can discover and purchase pay-per-download content such as ringtones or games. We also enable carriers to sell a variety of subscription-based products from the walled garden, including DayPass, Mobile IM, and Mobile Dating. For unrestricted access to the mobile Web, the subscriber must purchase a data plan (either pay-per-use or subscription) and be provisioned as an “open access” data user.
10. How will I know if my subscribers’ handsets are compatible with the services, content and applications offered by ClearSky?
The success of your mobile data program (both initially and ongoing) is highly dependent on the percentage of handsets in the field that will support mobile browsing and content downloads. ClearSky has tested hundreds of different mobile phones to ensure that subscribers have the best possible experience when purchasing and downloading content. The list of approved handsets is constantly growing as new models are introduced, to ensure the highest possible subscriber adoption. The most current list is published on the ClearSky Web site, but is only visible to present carrier clients with password access.
11. What support can I expect from ClearSky after we launch mobile data services?
Even before your mobile data services are in production, you will be introduced to our Customer Support team and your Account Manager. The Customer Support team will describe the methods of obtaining customer support, and explain how to interact with our support organization most efficiently. The Account Manager will work with you as often as you wish to coordinate other company resources, as necessary, to maximize the profitably of your mobile data products and services. For example, the Account Manager will help you interpret data from ProTrends BI reports, collaborate on retail marketing and training initiatives, coordinate local and cross-carrier contests, and provide custom marketing materials that can be used to promote the most popular content and themes.
12. How do I add new handsets after my ClearSky services are in production?
When you make plans to introduce new handsets to the market, you should first check to see if the specific handset appears on our supported handset list (available to customers through our Web site). If the handset is on the supported list, you may begin testing as soon as you wish. If the handset is not on the supported list, you should submit a “request to add handset” through our automated support site. All customers are supplied with a copy of the handset addition guidelines that describes the process in more detail.
13. How long has ClearSky been providing hosted services to carriers?
In 1999, ClearSky became the first non-carrier to operate a mobile data gateway. Running as a hosted service, the platform delivered mobile browsing and information services to subscribers of GTE Wireless. As our customers’ needs changed over the past ten years, we have expanded our offering to include a wide variety of mobile content, short messaging service, multimedia messaging service, applications, provisioning service, home deck management tools, single storefront, billing integration, usage analytics, and more.
14. Is there an opportunity for us to earn revenue from displaying advertising to our subscribers?
The ClearSky Mobile Advertising platform lets you include advertising banners on some or all of the pages that your subscribers view on their home decks. The advertising that we provide is primarily from national brands that are interested in targeting your audience. We are paid by national ad brokers based on the number of times each ad is viewed, and the revenue we receive is shared with you on a monthly basis. You may also submit local advertisements that can be mixed with the national ads, in which case your revenue share will increase.
15. How does ClearSky bill pre-paid and post-paid subscribers?
We have completed integration with all popular billing system vendors, allowing both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers to purchase browsing services and content. For pre-paid subscribers, our RevShare module reaches out to the pre-paid billing system, and verifies funds before allowing the purchase. For post-paid subscribers, RevShare authenticates the user, and sends a CDR to the post-paid billing system after every purchase.
16. How does ClearSky promote the cross-selling of different types of content?
With the Unified Media Center (UMC), ClearSky’s single content storefront, your subscribers can easily search, discover and purchase multiple types of content. One simple search command will find all content (e.g., ringtones, ringback tones, images, video clips, games, etc.) containing the search term, and will display the items found on a single page.
17. How do I access ClearSky technical support?
The most efficient means to obtain support is to log in and create a ticket in our on-line support system, which can be accessed from the www.csky.com Web site. This ticket will be routed automatically to the proper person based on the type of request and priority. Also, live customer support can be accessed 24×7 by calling the published support number, or by sending email to support [at] csky [dot] com.
18. How robust is your data center?
The ClearSky data center is housed within a co-location facility in central Florida that has been engineered and constructed to provide 100% availability. All critical power, HVAC and other infrastructure systems are N+1 redundant, with an on-site 2 MegaWatt diesel backup generator in the event of a total power grid failure. Internet connectivity is redundant through multiple providers, and system redundancy extends through all layers of the service architecture from firewalls, load balancers and routers, extending through application, database, and file service layers.
19. Does ClearSky offer entertainment content from all record labels?
Our current entertainment portfolio includes ringtones, ringback tones, and images in various formats from Warner Music Group, Disney, EMI, Universal Music, and Sony. Including their subsidiary labels, we offer content from more than a hundred different music publishers. Our selections normally include 100% of the top ten songs and artists on the Billboard charts, ensuring that your subscribers can find their favorites.
20. Besides ringtones and wallpapers, what type of applications does ClearSky offer subscribers?
Through the ClearSky Unified Media Center (UMC), your subscribers can also discover and purchase ringback tones, mobile games and video clips, along with thousands of popular applications via ClearSky’s Smartphone App Store.
21. Can ClearSky offer services to CDMA, GSM, and UMTS carriers?
We currently provide Multi-Generation SMS-C, MMS-C, Mobile Internet Gateway, Ringback Tone platform, and a wide range of PPD content and support services to CDMA, GSM, and UMTS carriers. Our qualified handset list contains hundreds of different models across all three network types. We have also engineered “hybrid” systems for carriers that operate both CDMA and GSM networks
22. Considering today’s “smartphone” capabilities, do we still need a Mobile Internet Gateway?
The reasons for using a Mobile Internet Gateway are the same for “smartphones” as for any other phone that contains a browser. Ever since the release of the WAP 2.0 specifications in 2001, the Internet Gateway (or proxy) no longer performs content adaption, and is not required to render Web pages on WAP 2.0-compliant phones. The Internet Gateway does, however, perform several crucial functions that allow an operator to provide value-added services instead of being just a conduit to the Internet. Among the Gateway’s key functions are authentication of end users to enable direct billing of premium services, access control, mobile Web site aliasing, monitoring and reporting, and differentiated levels of service.
23. What “take rates” can I expect for data services? SMS and MMS messages? Ringtones? Wallpaper? Ringback Service?
It is difficult to predict the adoption rates for any specific service, as it will depend on many factors including the demographic mix of the subscriber base (age, gender, economic status, etc.), type of handsets owned by subscribers, competition, local habits and trends, and more. ClearSky uses proven methodologies to maximize the penetration in every way possible, such as creative cross-channel marketing of content, no-cost browsing plans (walled garden), and constant updating of content assets. If implemented effectively, data plan purchases can be in the range of 5-20% of total subscribers, and average content purchases can be as high as 10% of your subscriber base per month.
24. What is Multi-Generational?
All ClearSky “Multi-G” services contain interfaces to support IP network cores (IMS), and all existing applications will be updated to support the latest 4G/LTE handsets; however, with ClearSky’s Multi-G SMS-C, MMS-C, Mobile Internet Gateway and Ringback Tone Platform, you can count on full backward compatibility with existing 3G and 2G components.
