Exploiting Rich Telecom Data for Increased Monetization of Telecom Application Stores

With rapid advancement in the capabilities of mobile phones, there has been a tremendous increase in the development and use of mobile applications in recent times. Surprisingly, Telecom operators have not been prominent players in the success of mobile applications and the corresponding mobile Application Stores. We argue that, to offset this going forward, Telecom operators can utilize some of their core strengths to create differentiated Application Stores that will help them compete effectively with their competitors. More specifically, Telecom operators have access to unique data which is not available elsewhere; this can be used to give new insights on their customers and offer them relevant mobile applications. In this paper, we present techniques on how applications can be promoted effectively from a Telecom Application Store utilizing the users’ location, their Telecom profiles as well as their social relationships derived from their calling patterns. Moreover, we provide a bidding platform that gives control to developers for highlighting their application by placing bids on multiple Telecom parameters. Simulations conducted utilizing real data from a large Telecom operator suggest the efficacy of our techniques.