Mobile should be unrestricted

He says one of the biggest mistakes that the Internet providers made was to sign exclusive content deals with partners, which instead of driving consumers to their sites, ended up severely restricting their markets. The same mistake is being made locally in the South African mobile environment.

How do you grow a market? By providing quality content to a wide audience who come back time and again, and who become disciples of the service creating huge support through word of mouth says Brophy.

"The short-sighted strategy of signing exclusive deals retards the growth of the market to the detriment of all would-be developers in that market. It is better for customers to be exposed to a wide range of quality content than to a limited amount of quality content, amongst a lot of poor to mediocre stuff, dispersed across too many providers. Media and advertising is expensive and the out-payments from the networks in general is modest and therefore it is better for all to be able to offer as much quality as possible in every advertisement."

He says international trends - gleaned from iTouch's global operations - show that the free flow of information and non-exclusivity on mobile content is the best way for all providers to make money in the industry.

"The problem with signing exclusive deals for international content – like some South African WASPs have done -and then spending huge amounts on advertising and promoting them and that only their service offers the information - does not add up.

"The best way to get content exposed to the whole market is to give rights to all ethical and financially stable companies and let them sell as much as they are skilled to handle."

The information market is a low margin - high volume one and it's amazing that some of the service providers don't seem to realise that rands and cents all add up.

"I believe the best way forward is to open up the environment in order to make money. Signing exclusivity deals and demanding high royalties are to the detriment of the whole industry. A no-win situation will be the result of trying to capture the goose before it lays its golden egg.

Brophy added, "All the WASPs should work together to ensure the growth and sustainability of the market and in the process best serve the interests of the customer."