New Opportunities

Increasing revenue through advanced communications

Can technology improve your business’ revenue figures?

Develop three main income streams: boosting passenger experience, maximize advertising conversion rates and increased value in new contract.

New Scenarios

Increase cross-selling opportunities and generate new business models through cutting-edge technology

New technologies offer state-of-the-art solutions combining communications and software

See how Teldat´s more than 30 years’ experience in corporate communications can boost new solutions.

Increase cross-selling opportunities and generate new business models through cutting-edge technology

Which added-value services do passengers expect from a bus company now and in the near future?

The market, as a result of a number of technological advances directly related to 3G/LTE connectivity, is beginning to introduce new services that are being quickly demanded by passengers as a standard part of their bus trip. Whether these state-of-the-art features are offered and seen by the customers as added-value elements that save them time or increase the comfort of their trip will bring about a new opportunity to sell new services.

Bus tickets

The market is moving forward toward a new paradigm that notably resembles that of airlines, where fees vary greatly depending on availability, special seats (emergency, executive, semi-sleeper…) and time schedules (different prices for weekends, holiday periods or last-minute purchases). Charge your passengers differently depending on the context and maximize profits per passenger.

TV services

Passengers, acting as regular subscribers in a television service provider, are given the possibility to purchase events according to their preferences. Watching real-time TV streams enables passengers to follow the latest events like on-demand sporting events (football matches), the latest news, and their preferred TV series, etc. Some passengers are willing to pay to follow these events in some cases.

On-board Entertainment

Newest film releases, videogames, innovative content. A pay-per view scheme that can be easily managed with VoD solutions thanks to full connectivity on board (typically at the headquarters of the bus company), and which enables the bus operator to generate extra profit.

Premium Wi-Fi

Passengers who might need extra bandwidth will be able to acquire it at an extra cost. In order to achieve this, the communications device must have a prioritization mechanism that guarantees that this feature runs smoothly. Launch this and other premium services in the segment and prioritize certain groups of passengers according to their needs.

Online shopping

Not only shopping linked to conventional goods and services, but to services closely associated with means of transport, such as ordering meals in advance and picking them up at service areas, traditional products from specific regions through which the bus passes, or even coordination with mobile suppliers (hop-on sellers)… The possibilities are endless. Have your own on-board online shop that is fully controlled by your own company, with no competitors, that allows you to choose and forge your own alliances according to your needs.

Attract new types of passengers

Some types of passengers have special connectivity needs on the go that are not being met by the current companies on the market, such as international passengers, commuters or even traders that need access to the Internet at all times. These types of passengers are more prone to choose your company if their connectivity needs are covered on board.

Travel agencies services

Some customers, for instance the aforementioned international passengers, might require special services that can only be achieved with connectivity on-board via apps: arranging the rental of a means of transport at the destination, taking care of accommodation on arrival, organizing last-minute tourism packages… Gaining profit from having travel agency capabilities, or even create your own travel agency aboard. Just like for the online shop, controlling the channels means having the negotiation powers to build your own external partnerships depending on your particular needs at any moment.

Audio Guides

Audio guides are becoming a new trend in the tourism sector. This service works in a similar way to audio guides for museums and art exhibitions, with the important difference that on buses they must automatically synchronize their operation according to their geographical position. Offer GPS audio guides for rental on your tourist buses.

How can technology improve advertising medium which increase advertisers ROI and justify higher investments on advertisement?

There is a total different approach to advertising when technology is employed. Advertisements are transforming from static to dynamic media, enabling the allocation of ads at precisely the right moment in time and at the correct location of a bus trip for a specific user. This is what is known as Contextual Advertising, and it works in a way that the ads themselves are selected and then served by automated systems based on the identity of the user and the content displayed.

Contextual advertising

Dynamic advertising changes according to the GPS position of the vehicle, allowing the system to behave differently depending on the geolocation of the device. For instance, when it is lunchtime and there is a restaurant of a chain company nearby, its ad will be shown. When the bus is approaching a service area, one of the restaurants there will be displayed in advance, and when there are clothing stores in the vicinity of the bus, their ad will be shown. Where exactly?

On all the users’ devices and on the seat-back screens, upon registration at the captive portal.

When multimedia content begins (free films, music, live tv, etc.), in commercial breaks, etc.

Tailored advertising

Minimizing wasted advertising, or in other words, ensuring that media is bought effectively and not directed toward the “wrong people”, is the ultimate marketing challenge to ensure an impact in the right segment. Tailored advertising (also known as targeted advertising) focuses on certain traits of the consumer that are based on the product or person that the advertiser is promoting:

Demographic traits, such as economic status, sex, age, education level, income level and employment.

Psychographic traits, based on the consumer’s ethics, personality, attitudes, opinions, lifestyles or interests.

Behavioral variables, such as browser history, purchase history, mobile activities and other recent activity.

Tailored advertising has proven to be beneficial and cost efficient in many fields since it places the focal point on certain key traits for which the consumers have a strong preference, directly receiving the right message and eliminating redundant and poorly matched advertising. It is, in short, an added value service only possible with on-board communication that is charged accordingly.

Make a difference when it comes to bidding for new contracts.

In the same way that the market demands the implementation of the latest technologies, so do the passengers, asking for broadband transmission, wireless connectivity, on-board entertainment or real-time capabilities. These state of the art features are present in order to provide punctuality services that, at the end of the day, ensure the passengers’ satisfaction. In turn, all these features are taken into account significantly by both the public government and private corporations upon awarding new contracts.

Passenger satisfaction

Bus services often carry out customer experience surveys to investigate passenger satisfaction. When surveys ask passengers about what gives them great satisfaction, areas related to technology (Internet connectivity, online TV, on-board entertainment, etc.) are among the highest rated. Impacting passengers with multimedia capabilities will not only improve your numbers, but also build loyalty.

Get the best score

Having a cutting-edge offer in today’s market will undoubtedly be crucially based on the technology in a bid. On equal terms with regards to transportation, institutions tend to compare the different offers by setting up score schemes based on the additional services that are offered to the customers. Thus, contract buyers are much more likely to rate offers that provide the latest technological advantages, and connectivity will be central to all of them.

Request Information

Solution

New technologies offer state-of-the-art solutions combining communications and software

How can a bus operator manager adapt their bus fleet to take advantage of all these new market opportunities?

It is a fact that online booking agencies are synchronized with airlines and railway operators to provide flexible tickets. Similarly, cloud-based applications coordinate with on-board consoles and mobile apps allow the perfect synchronization of users, fare collection and bus agencies for flexible fares and maximization of occupation rates on buses.

On-board entertainment has been deployed for decades in long distance flights using “seat-back screens”. Newer technology like smartphones and tablets provide 90% of the passengers with a portable screen which does not need to be maintained by operators. This “Bring Your Own Device” strategy provides the perfect breeding ground to save on maintenance and investment costs and provide added-value services. Newer compression algorithms and better video reproducers as well as newer LTE (LTE-Advance) and Wi-Fi (802.11ac) technologies support VoD and TV broadcasts on the various devices. As a growing market there are numerous providers specialized in the combination of all these technologies.

Providing reliable passenger connectivity through a combination of the latest communication technologies and multiple operators in combination with HotSpot solutions in the market enables the prioritization of different user profiles for premium services. HotSpot solutions in the market enable the registration of users, gathering almost any kind of information from social network profiles and frequent user numbers to contact details or preferences from surveys. All this information can be stored in a database, and targeted marketing platforms available in the market allows targeted marketing to be created for these profiles.

The common ground for the technological revolution that is taking place right now is the cloud. All the features previously mentioned are, in some way or another, feeding it and continuously exchanging information with it. This real-time inter-connection is only possible by installing an advanced communications platform on the bus fleet.

This is the pillar that will provide high density on your buses with: Wi-Fi, simultaneous connections to telecom carriers or GPS. This will allow the combination of improved passenger experience (Internet connectivity and entertainment solutions) with other areas such as, monitoring/tracking capabilities of fleet vehicles, video surveillance (CCTV), ticketing or dynamic marketing.

High Density Wi-Fi

With several simultaneous Access Points (APs) that can operate both as a client and server to provide 3G/LTE Internet connection to all passengers and their multiple devices. This permits the use of Internet aboard, both for passengers and for the services associated with the bus company itself. Furthermore, our proprietary HotSpot Gateway ensures interoperability with any captive portal used by the client, and we can also offer a number of proprietary captive portals we normally work with. The combination of both features allows segmentation, and thus the introduction of added-value services such as Premium Wi-Fi, among others.

Multiple-SIMs

These enable the use of several carriers simultaneously, allowing users to stay connected even when vehicles are going through areas with low coverage. The H2Automotive+ model can use up to 4 carriers (quad-SIM), while its lite version H2Automotive has Dual-SIM.

It comes without saying that all necessary accessories, such as antennas, are provided by Teldat and has our endorsed supervision, so that the maximum level of signal and operability is ensured under any circumstances.

Switching capabilities

This includes four Gigabit-Ethernet ports that permit connection to virtually any external device. This is yet another indicator of our communications platform’s extreme versatility, as its interoperation has been tested with a great variety of external devices such as satellite antennas, video surveillance (CCTV), DVR, IP cameras, on-board systems… The sky is literally the limit, for if it has not been done previously, our team of technicians will do the job.

Load Balancing and Bandwidth Aggregation

When the signal coverage of several telecommunications carriers is good, the bandwidth is aggregated, increasing the amount of total bandwidth available. A mixture of hardware and software mechanisms enable the signal quality for each of the cellular links to be continuously monitored, choosing the one with the highest performance dynamically, in a completely transparent fashion for the users (both the passengers and the internal bus services). High performance ensured even in scenarios with over 50 passengers.

Dynamic Link Selection & Bandwidth Prioritization.

In order to be able to handle different on-board services efficiently, the platform has mechanisms for prioritizing traffic. This applies to any platform used by the user, whether they are integrated touchscreens in the buses, mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, or any other gadgets. As previously mentioned, the task is carried out by a number of hardware and software mechanisms that work together to choose the best cellular link dynamically.

Integrated GPS

This lends geolocation and geofencing capabilities. This allows, among other features, the automatic change from Wi-Fi service for passengers into Wi-Fi client for content synchronization using Wi-Fi network at depots. For example, once the bus enters the depot, in order to download videocamera data, update software, etc., without saturating the LTE links and reducing data costs.

Teldat’s added value

Reliable multiservice on-board communications

What added-value does Teldat’s on-board communications platform offer compared to others?

Teldat has a huge advantage in comparison to other on-board router manufacturers. Our communications devices are based on a proprietary operating system which offers high-level advantages that are requested by the most demanding sectors in the economy, such as the financial sector, telecommunication carriers and public government. That is why manufacturers without this experience are unable to match Teldat’s added value.

As a real example of the diverse functions this feature offers, the video surveillance cameras (CCTV) installed on Boston’s bus fleet could be monitored in real-time in the police cars near buses via Wi-Fi and uploaded at depots through Wi-Fi reducing data usage of the SIMs.

Download Boston Case Study

Other features that are also present in our H2 communications platforms include:

Rugged hardware design, to minimise maintenance costs and outages for the bus operator.

SIP Server and GSM Gateway.
IPSec, firewall and encrypted communications.

Request Information