With RCS business messaging (RBM) set to experience significant growth, telecom operators have a key role in ensuring its successful implementation and uptake. Here are strategic tips for telecom operators to capitalize on the growth forecast and ensure a sustainable RCS ecosystem.
Juniper Research forecasts that RCS business messaging traffic will reach 50 billion messages globally in 2025, Apple’s first full year of support for the technology. This represents a single-year growth from 33 billion in 2024. Molly Gatford, Research Analyst at Juniper Research, has shared the following recommendations in the whitepaper on the RCS business messaging market.
Partner with Established RBM Service Providers
Collaborate with experienced RBM service providers to support enterprise adoption. This ensures that operators can offer end-to-end support to businesses, helping them effectively leverage RCS for customer engagement.
Encourage RBM service providers to work directly with enterprises across sectors (especially retail) to accelerate onboarding and drive broader interest and investment in RCS capabilities.
Prioritize Google’s Jibe Platform for Seamless Interoperability
By prioritizing the onboarding of RCS services to Google’s Jibe platform, operators benefit from network interoperability, reducing the costs and complexity associated with launching RCS services. This step is crucial for aligning with Apple’s anticipated RCS adoption and achieving scale quickly.
A slow onboarding process could hinder RCS growth. Operators should allocate resources and establish project management protocols to streamline onboarding and avoid potential traffic growth setbacks.
Competitive Pricing Strategies
Offering basic RCS messaging at SMS-equivalent pricing can make the transition smoother for enterprises, particularly for transactional messages. This pricing approach can be a catalyst for businesses to adopt RCS while helping consumers become familiar with the enhanced features over time.
Basic RCS messages support brand verification, which strengthens customer trust. Promote this feature as a unique benefit of RCS compared to SMS, highlighting its potential to enhance brand reputation and mitigate phishing risks.
Capitalize on Apple’s RCS Adoption in 2025
With the US having lower email penetration and higher SMS dependency, there is an opportunity to position RCS as an enhanced alternative for brand messaging, especially for retail. Target high-impact brands early to create a cascade effect, building familiarity and trust in the US market.
With Apple’s support, leverage RCS’s multimedia capabilities to enhance engagement in promotional messages. This can differentiate RCS from OTT apps, positioning it as a premium business messaging channel.
Promote Conversational Use Cases for Long-Term Engagement
Conversational use cases allow operators to showcase RCS’s strengths in interactivity and real-time engagement. Encourage enterprises to adopt RCS for customer support and commerce applications, thereby improving the customer experience.
Encourage enterprises to integrate AI-powered chatbots within RCS, which can handle frequent customer inquiries and enhance transactional interactions through automation.
Segment and Market Different RCS Message Types
Highlight the benefits of each RCS message type (e.g., authentication, transactional, promotional, conversational) to help enterprises adopt RCS based on specific business needs.
Ensure that enterprises understand the compliance and security advantages RCS offers, particularly for transactional and authentication messages. This will be especially valuable for sectors like banking and healthcare, where data protection is paramount.
Evaluate and Adjust for Future Growth
Use analytics to understand which types of messages drive the highest engagement and conversions, and adjust strategy accordingly. Tracking RBM traffic trends helps operators fine-tune services, optimize pricing, and plan network resource allocation for sustained growth.
With growth expected, plan for infrastructure scalability to support increased traffic volumes and RCS innovation, including augmented RCS features and AI integration.
By prioritizing interoperability, leveraging strategic pricing, and targeting key sectors, telecom operators can position themselves to harness the full potential of RCS messaging and support enterprises in creating meaningful customer connections.
Top Challenges in RCS Messaging Market
While RCS business messaging has made strides, several challenges still pose obstacles to widespread enterprise adoption and market growth. Below are some key issues that telecom operators and industry stakeholders must address to ensure the long-term success of RCS.
Competition from OTT Messaging Platforms
OTT messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and WeChat dominate in many markets, particularly for peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging, offering stiff competition to RCS.
OTT apps are able to innovate quickly, often releasing new features faster than RCS, making them attractive to enterprises looking for robust and dynamic communication channels.
OTT platforms often provide cost-effective solutions, placing pressure on RCS to match or exceed both the value and affordability of OTT services.
For RCS to compete, operators must emphasize an omnichannel approach, making RCS part of a larger communication ecosystem that complements OTT offerings.
Fraud and Security Concerns
Due to the different architecture of RCS compared to SMS, new types of fraud are anticipated, requiring a proactive and adaptive security approach.
Operators rely on Google’s Call Detail Record (CDR) feed, which is updated only every 24 hours, creating a potential delay in fraud detection and response. This gap can allow fraudulent activity to persist longer and may undermine trust in RCS among businesses and consumers.
The RCS ecosystem must adopt real-time monitoring and advanced fraud detection systems to quickly identify and mitigate new threats, ensuring security remains a priority.
Lack of Unified Global Operator Support
Not all operators have adopted RCS, limiting its reach and availability, especially in high-smartphone markets where a unified experience is critical to prevent user drop-off.
Onboarding onto platforms like Google Jibe has been slow for some operators, further impeding the seamless, global availability of RCS services.
Operators need to prioritize interoperability and speed up the onboarding process to Google’s Jibe platform. Greater coordination among operators can help RCS establish a foothold in markets where OTT apps currently dominate.
