LIVE FROM CTIA 13, LAS VEGAS: Operators will continue to play a vital role in the mobile value chain despite the rise of OTT players but it is imperative they alter their business models in order to remain relevant. That was the message from a conference session here this afternoon featuring representatives from US operator Sprint and messaging player Pinger.

Speaking on a panel session about the competition between operators and OTT players, Greg Woock, co-founder and CEO of messaging company Pinger (pictured, left), said mobile networks have an inherent value that means users will continue to pay operators for connections and phone numbers.

“I don’t think that the phone number will go away or the carrier becomes obsolete. I don’t think the carrier becomes a dumb pipe, I think the user becomes a smart pipe,” Woock said.

Comparing mobile networks to the web, Woock said that services like Google and Facebook make money despite being free to use. “So people will figure out how to make money. You’ll still pay for that connectivity and you’ll buy the best connectivity that you can get.”

“The network is important. The application is somebody else’s application. So [operators] can make money from the network and they’re going to continue to make money doing that,” Woock noted.

Kevin McGinnis, Sprint VP of product platforms (pictured, right), argued that operators will not just run the networks and allow OTT players to make money and innovate.

“I have a software development team and I don’t think there’s any reason why I can’t compete in that space with everyone else. I’m not going to be relegated into just being a pipe,” he said, adding that operators should develop their own OTT products as well as better exploit the intelligence of their networks.

McGinnis acknowledged that operators should work out how to partner with OTT players to improve the user experience and potentially develop new revenue models. “We do have to find a way to compete from an innovation perspective,” he said.