Application Service Provider-Oriented Data Monetization Services

In order to monetize the data flowing through their networks, mobile network operators can target service providers in the Internet in addition to their subscribers. A service provider is any entity that provides applications and websites for consumers to access on the Internet. The differentiating advantages that a mobile network operator has in offering services to a service provider are the same as that for enterprises, namely, it can provide services to employees of the enterprise at a lower latency, intercept messages on its network transparently, and determine location of employees without requiring a power-draining application on the mobile handhelds. Unlike an enterprise, where a network operator can strike a deal to supply mobile connectivity to most of its employees, most mobile network operators can only capture a fraction of users accessing an application service providers. They can still provide services like caching and content distribution to reduce the load on the websites, as well as services like fog computing. Mobile network operators would typically see a larger volume of traffic passing through all but a handful of application service providers; they can provide services to smaller application service providers that compete with the offerings of the larger application service providers. Mobile network operators can aggregate information like location and demography across users to provide interesting information to application service providers. They can also use the historical information about calling patterns to provide insights for better infrastructure planning to many application service providers.