Speaking at the panel: ‘Is RCS about to hit a crest of a next big wave?’ at Messaging and SMS World at the Hilton Parkside hotel in London, Schurig joked that RCS was a “money printing machine”.
That was before he affirmed that adoption of the technology is still at a fairly early stage and widespread use will take “longer than expected”.
The panel was moderated by Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), and featured Catherine Maguire, product manager at BT/EE, Eduardo Jerez, COO at C3ntro Telecom, Alex Nourouzi, carrier sales at DOTGO, David Hassman, VP of strategy at Syniverse.
Betti asked the panellists if revenue was being generated at this stage from RCS, to wish Maguire said yes.
“We are beginning to make revenue on the service which is really encouraging,” she said.
“In the UK market, there is more of an opportunity for growth, and so although it has been a long road, there’s definitely revenue growth within BT/EE.”
Maguire also mentioned BT’s partnership with Google, first launched in 2020, to bring RCS Business Messaging (RBM) to businesses in the UK, believing it to be a key opportunity for even more revenue growth moving forward.
A long journey
Acknowledging that the RCS journey has been a long one that has promised plenty, Hassman said that he would have been non-committal if asked whether RCS could generate revenue 10 years ago.
That, though, is no longer the case but moving forward it is essential to make it easier for enterprises to get on board with RCS.
This means a holistic solution for the integration of RCS would be useful for all involved.
“And I’m very confident we’re on the right path,” Hassman said.
Security was high on the agenda at the panel. The panellists agreed that more needs to be done for customers to realise that RCS is a safe way to communicate.
From a UK perspective, Maguire says RCS security is “watertight in the UK” and BT/EE is looking at ways that may protect it more moving forward.
Schurig added that this can be done through “really nice use cases which were pretty successful”.
“They haven’t made it completely to production yet, but there were some really nice demonstration products.”
Betti noted some of the developments that RCS has made over the last 12 months, despite the technology sometimes being perceived as “slow” to progress.
Yet even in spite of that, the panellists remain hopeful.
On some things they would like to see in the coming months, Hassman said he would like to see a streamlined way for RCS to be implemented by business, with onboarding processes made simpler.
Jerez believes simplicity is key and making customers aware that RCS is safe and beneficial is key to increasing its popularity.
Unsurprisingly, Schurig once again highlighted use cases, while Maguire was “quietly confident” that more would become available in the coming months.
