Customer smartphone issues hit network operators with a £380m bill within five years.
Device complexity, ongoing fragmentation of the Android platform and increasing smartphone popularity and uptake among so-called "late majority" and "laggard" consumers will cost an additonal £60m to operators cost of business.
The global market will also face an increase in expenditure with smartphone users.
Forecasters predict a 17% increase for German operators at a collective cost increase of $91 million and a 13% increase for operators in the USA at a collective cost increase of $200 million.
Daniel Deeney, CEO at AetherPal said: "The combination of smartphone uptake and OS fragmentation issues means that it’s essential for operators to evolve their customer care strategies. Most operators with high smartphone penetration are now looking to effective customer self-care operations to reduce a growing reliance on the call centre."
"Market momentum behind the smartphone is such that there is very little operators can do about the anticipated increase in volume of customer care queries over the next few years.
"What operators can do is get smarter with how they manage this surge, and carefully consider the valuable role that self-care solutions can play."
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"By empowering users to resolve their own issues, operators can considerably reduce their costs and improve the customer experience by driving faster resolution. The call centre will always play an important part in supporting customers, but operators need to focus on lower cost approaches if they’re to maintain differentiation and profitability."
