What Threats and Risks Does RCS Pose for MNOs?

RCS (Rich Communication Services) has become an evolution in traditional text messaging. While SMS offers rather limited capabilities, such as basic text and multimedia, RCS delivers a richer, more dynamic, and interactive user experience. However, the rise of this communication channel brings new challenges for MNOs. In this article, we discuss how mobile operators can address them effectively.

What Are Rich Communication Services and Why Do They Matter?

The RCS data transfer protocol appeared in 2008 as a modern alternative to MMS and SMS. There is no fee for sending such messages, as the protocol works via an Internet connection, similar to instant messengers.

Unlike its predecessors, RCS offers wider functionality, including:

• Sending text messages, photos, videos, audio, and even documents
• Chat functions, such as stickers, reactions, and read receipts
• Built-in buttons for interacting with content and branded messages
• High-resolution files without size restrictions, etc.

Such a tool can become an excellent marketing channel for interacting with the audience. Immediately after its appearance, analysts predicted its rapid growth and market dominance, but in reality, this didn’t happen. For many years, SMS has remained the most reliable and accessible way for brand communication with customers.

Why? First, the RCS market did not become as popular as expected due to strong competition with messengers, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, which already offer similar functionality. Second, GSMA developed this data transfer protocol for almost 10 years, and only in 2018 it was completed and unified. Third, the lack of support from Apple played a significant role. For a long time, RCS was available only on some Android devices. Apple changed the game in 2024, when the iOS 18 release brought the RCS protocol to iMessage on iPhone. This significantly improved the messaging experience between iOS and Android users. Moreover, just a month later, in the iOS 18.1 update, we saw the RCS Business Messaging (RBM), which companies can use to communicate and interact with their customers more effectively.

Google has been at the forefront of RCS implementation, partnering with major carriers in regions where Android dominates the smartphone market, particularly North America, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Apple only implemented RCS in iMessage in 2024, initially focusing on North America before gradually expanding to other key markets.

Summing up all the above, the key problems with widespread implementation of the global RCS network are primarily technical: deploying this technology requires intensive collaboration with mobile network operators and depends on operator infrastructure.

How Do RCS Messages Impact Mobile Operators?

According to Mobilesquared, the number of RCS message users has doubled in just two years from January 2022 to June 2024. This traffic accounts for approximately 26% of total SMS traffic. For mobile operators, RCS messages present both an opportunity and a threat. On the one hand, this format can revitalize the A2P messaging market and offer businesses modern ways to interact with customers.

On the other hand, it is unclear whether operators have a chance to monetize this traffic. Traditional SMS traffic is already being cannibalized by popular OTT messengers (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, and others). And RCS risks repeating this trend. In some cases, companies use RCS based on Google’s infrastructure to send marketing materials for free and bypass MNOs focus, which threatens the profitability of this channel. However, there are also cases when MNOs collaborate with Google and Apple and monetize the legal, registered sender names and traffic.

How Should MNOs Respond to RCS?

New risks require new solutions. MNOs need to develop a clear commercial model for RCS to monetize traffic and implement mechanisms for monitoring A2P messages, ensuring transparency and protection against the free use of their network infrastructure for marketing activities. 

MNOs’ collaboration with Google and Apple enables them to generate revenue from RCS messaging, maintaining a secure, direct communication channel between companies and their customers. However, in some cases, companies and services exploit bypasses when MNOs have limited control over the network and aren’t protected from unauthorized traffic, leading to revenue losses.

We also need to keep focus on the technical aspect of RCS deployment and consolidation of efforts in network integration and infrastructure management. To maintain control over traffic, significant investments in time, effort, and money are needed, as well as effective cooperation from all market participants. Nevertheless, Rich Communication Services, with its powerful features, real-time interactions, and business messaging, can become a strong alternative to traditional SMS and OTT messaging platforms.

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