In the wireless mobile world, Australian phone carriers need to stick to what they're good at and let the big portals handle content delivery, according to research group Gartner.
Speaking at a Wireless Access, Mobile Business conference held in Sydney today, Gartner Research Director Geoff Johnson says telcos need to get in bed with major portals to deliver content in the wireless market.
"Carriers need to become expert at becoming portal drivers, not content providers," Johnson said.
According to Gartner Managing Director John Robin Simpson, portals are thriving to drive the wireless technology.
"It's easy for a big portal site to become a wireless enabled portal by buying wireless service off a carrier," he said.
Portals, such as Yahoo are good at content management as they have been in the business for many years, according to Simpson.
Gartner believes it is difficult for a carrier to become an expert at content delivery in the wireless arena as it takes the focus away from doing what the operator is good at, which is "measuring bits" and providing services for content delivery.
"It's a harder ask for a carrier to become a content delivery expert. The answer is to partner with portals," Simpson said.
"They are good at providing phones, it's a big ask to be content provider."
According to Simpson, Telstra and Vodafone have put a lot of effort into creating portals, however both carriers should go back to what they are good at as leading portals are too big to compete with.
"Yahoo and Amazon are significant competitors because they are so good at delivering content. Lots of carriers can give them wireless access," Simpson said.
"It's difficult to add value with significant players investing in content providing," he said.
