Most of the telecom operators are concerned that 3G and LTE data services will introduce Internet based voice services and their traditional voice business will be lost. What can the operators do?

Telecom bridges three gaps (a) Distance, (b) Information and (c) Time. Telecom Operator's focus is "Distance" and Web-services focus is "Information" with some overlapping intentions. No one is focusing on Time? Let us consider a few examples to understand the issues (Please note I have restricted the discussion to voice calls only) -

(a) Instant Access - reduced waiting time, saved travel time, improved response to customer. This has resulted in setting up call-centers service to reach out to customers. The value add charged by call-center over normal communication service is anywhere between 20-200 times (depending on the country and type of services). If the underlying voice call is FREE the value addition is infinite! The flaw in this model is that call center does not factor in the cost of time of the called party (it is assumed to be zero). Most of the dissatisfaction with call centers is emerging from 2 issues - long waiting for service calls and the unsolicited calls. Obviously the call centers do not care about your time, however call-centers get paid for "on call" time. What you don't want comes unannounced and what you need is on-hold for the next free attendant. This is an unsustainable model which finds it roots in the Toll Free Service. If the service was not “toll free” it could have been better?

(b) Pervasive Access - The personal or private time of individuals has been taken over by telephonic interrupts. People travel long distances to meet someone and find that their face to face meetings are interrupted by telephone calls. Taking appointments, booking calendars, scheduling conference calls, watching movies, why lunch even loo brakes are interrupted with phone calls. If time is money whose is paying for your time? People talk to family during office hours and take work related conference-calls from home.

It is my estimate that productivity of individuals due to unplanned calls has come down by at least 20%. In any given meeting at least 2 people go out of the meeting to take phone calls. Everyone in meeting is interrupted by emails, text messages and everyone is multi-tasking.

Let me kick in my theory here "talk time is free but the time to talk is not". If we were to build a complex talk-time trading system:- One that allows calling party to decide the price they are willing to pay to talk to someone and it also allows the called party's willingness to accept the call at certain price, the transaction would be more rewarding. The operator can decide a floor price for the calling party talk time and the rest of the pricing will be on discovery and market forces. Telecom operator keeps a small percent of revenue. The factors determining talk-time trading is time-of-the-day, presence status and relationship between the calling parties. Now consider a few use-cases of this trading system.

1. Consider that the calling party has signed up for the minimum floor price. If the called party has marked status as available the call goes through. This is plain vanilla stuff.

2. Consider the called party has applied restrictions with check-my-price flag. Now the calling party will need to up the stake depending on the number of suitors and a fee charged by receiver. It better be important. Assuming that calling party has real emergency situation agrees to pay for higher call rate the call matures.

3. Appointment situation. Consider a patient to book an appointment with Doctor. Patient is presented with a fee for available slot much like a flight booking system. Once a reservation is made online during the appointed hour, Incoming calls to doctor will be presented to an online call administrator who can take messages or interrupt the doctor during emergency situation. If the doctor is interrupted network refunds the patient. During the appointment situation the patient also has call restrictions or optional call administrator. The appointment situation can be extended to consultations, education, coaching, etc.

4. Circle of influence. The users can create their inner and peripheral circles. The inner circle belongs to direct work and family relations. Presence information is shared within the circles. Calls are treated differently when being presented outside of the circle. The calling party can present a call with message (e.g. "Your stock broker is calling"). The presence status decides the billing rate. If you are in office and decide to take personal calls or call outside your circle, your office may charge you. If you accept a call in a meeting your phone bill goes up. Likewise if you get office circle calls during personal time, you make extra money.

5. Certain areas like cinema halls, theatres, hospitals, etc will have restrictions and different bleeding oops billing plans!

6. Different subject matter experts can make themselves available on-call for charge. The bidding system decides who is most sought after and the stake goes up.

7. Celebrities can put up themselves available for fan-call for a fee determined by talk-time auction system.

This requires standardizations efforts, inter-operator agreements and massive integration with location, presence and payment platforms.  If the operators are willing to open these systems, independent application developers will be interested. Long distance education using video conferencing is a great example of “value of time” for technology provider, content provider, service provider and end-user. The trading system devised for talk-time price discovery would be the best way to grow the voice revenue.