| |February 20179CIOReviewThe OTT service providers deliver audio, video and other media over the internet and utilizing the underlying capabilities of the traditional operator's networkThe OTT service providers deliver audio, video and other media over the internet and utilizing the underlying capabilities of the traditional operator's network. Since, the OTT players do not require any business or technology affiliations with network operators for providing such services, they are often known by the term "Over-The-Top" (OTT) applications. These lean and nimble OTT players, enabled by technology advances such as smart phones, super-fast IP networks, open source platforms, innovative services, cutting edge functionalities shift in consumer preferences towards their "freemium" based business models are seeing an ever increasing adoption rate.The evolving need of the consumers coupled with the faster and better Networks and service offering made ubiquitously available by the OTT players made it possible to offer bouquet of Unified service offerings. The basic intent being ­ be able to offer end-to-end service offering to consumers that could fulfil the needs of consumers to:a) Remain informed b) Better connected (by means of voice/chat/video or any other means)c) Be entertained (by means of audio/video/streaming and gaming) and d) Transact on Digital media by a ubiquitous service offering by the Telecom partners. The services are not limited here and by evolution of app stores by various platform providers it has further become easy to be agnostic to the type of Technology or Handsets being used.Following are some of the domains in which Unified offering is enhancing consumer experience like never before.Despite the challenges the operators face, they cannot afford to let the situation deteriorate into a win-or-lose proposition. To capture their share of the new value being created through digitization, operators need to adjust their world view, consider their position and preferred way to play in the complete value chain, and develop the capabilities needed to win. It is still early to say that we have reached a state where we are mature in our unified offerings, we still need to integrate the way we see (Television/other screens), hear and talk (Wireline, wireless, point to point communication systems), transact business (e-commerce, mobile wallets), travel (replaced by virtual presence) etc. The test of time would be to make our hand held device perform much more than it does today and practically replace the wallets, cameras, gaming devices, cash cards, etc. and offer a host of services that we Humans need in a very simplified manner.What next: The new era of communication now demands that this unified communication does not only include human's need to communicate with each other but the next decade will see Humans interacting with machines and also machines interacting between themselves to bring value to the entire ecosystem and become smarter now. The era of IOT (or M2M as it is commonly referred to) will be a milestone in our journey of Communication. Communications Chat/ Messaging Voice calling Video Calling Email Clients Facebook Twitter Instagram Linked in Youtube Daily Motion NetFlix Podcast Ecommerce E-health Mobile Banking Weather.com Google Maps Mobile WalletsLife Style EnablerVideo/ AudioApplicationsGulshan Khurana
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