Revenues from RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging, supported by Google, will cross $9 billion by 2022 from an estimated $126 million in 2018.

Juniper Research forecasts that global RCS users will near 2 billion by 2022. RCS supports rich media content including video sharing and file transfers.

Telecom operators will be focusing on A2P (Application to Person) services, which include automated messages from companies to customers, for RCS revenue. A2P will account for over 90 percent of RCS traffic by 2022, as companies benefit from rich media functionality and large reach to enhance engagement levels.

The report did not mention about the possible revenue for mobile operators from the RCS space. The report is also silent about the investment required to generate revenue from the RCS business.

A2P RCS will bridge the gap between the ubiquity of SMS and the enhanced experience that OTT applications bring, according to Juniper Research.

Initial pricing and attractive business models will play an important role in encouraging the early adoption of the RCS technology. The strategy of mobile operators should be to initially implement an event-based model involving a simple charge per delivered message to ease the transition from SMS to RCS.

The RCS technology has been unsuccessful as a P2P messaging channel. The report said the capabilities of RCS as an A2P service will be popular with advertisers.

The strategy of mobile operators should be the implementation of fair usage policies while implementing new pricing models. “A model based on the number of RCS interactions would necessitate such a policy to guard against straining operator networks,” Research author Sam Barker said.

Mobile operators, as part of the RCS strategy, may invest in AI (Artificial Intelligence) to facilitate conversational communication that minimises response times. Platforms that includes fall back to SMS will ensure message termination.