At the seventh VAS India 2010 held in Mumbai on Thursday, the inaugural session was on ‘The Road Ahead For MVAS Landscape In India’.
Subhash Dhar, member executive council and group head, sales and marketing, Infosys said in his keynote speech that till now internet was considered a radical phenomenon but now mobile is all set to create a similar revolution. Considering that voice call charges have dropped drastically, value added services are pegged to create alternative revenue generating streams for operators and thus will create huge buzz.
Dhar added, “The future of businesses will be driven by broader digital engagement with their consumers and will act as a catalyst in the future economy”. He further added that all ecosystem players will have to join hands to bring mobile VAS to the masses.
Uday Sodhi, chief executive officer, Balaji Telefilms said, “The current revenue from VAS hovers around 8-9 per cent of total telcos’ revenues. However, by the end of this year it will rise to about 12-14 per cent of revenues, amounting to nearly Rs 11,000 crore.”
With over more than 500 million mobile phone users in the country, penetration to various areas with multilingual diversities and providing vast content such as games, applications, astrology, mobile banking etc and related services is a challenge which has to be accomplished. The emphasis at the event was on the 3G and 4G aspect and providing faster access such as Broadband availability to take VAS further.
Shyam Mardikar, senior vice-president, networks, Bharti Airtel said, “Telecom is a mature business and the consumer is choosy. Therefore, the quality of services needs to be refined, optimised and manifestation of existing services has to be done”.
India has sent at least 2 billion SMSes on New Year day, informs Mardikar. He urged that quality will be the main focus going further and understanding the customer will be must. “VAS is not one man game; it is an effort of the entire ecosystem of VAS.”
SS Sirohi, principal general manager and head, VAS, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said, “Nearly 750,000 customers are using 3G BSNL, currently available in 300 cities and the target is to spread it to 700 cities by July 2010.”
VAS will bring about a change in lifestyle of the common man, said Lloyd Mathias, president and chief marketing officer, Tata Teleservices Limited. He elaborated his point by giving an example of a fisherman from Kerala who has to sell his fish to the dealer at the rate at which the dealer pays him. However, with the introduction of VAS, he will be able to get the best deal available.
From the regulator point of view RN Prabhakar, member, TRAI, had a similar opinion and focused on how VAS has become so important and innovative for the telecom operators with the intense competition bringing down the ARPU and the tariff. In his concluding speech, Prabhakar said “MVAS will bring about a huge change and improve the living standards for all the classes and the market is just ripe for bringing about and to be a part of the change”.
To sum up, VAS is set to see a sea change and will go beyond music and entertainment. Initiatives such as e-governance, rural healthcare, education are upcoming opportunities for operators and VAS providers.
2 billion SMSes sent on New Year: VAS India 2010
Multilingual content will bridge the divide in VAS
“What kind of applications should be innovated to reap the full benefits of VAS?” was the topic of discussion at the seventh VAS 2010 held on Thursday. Successful strategies for business success in MVAS telecom landscape was the point of focus at the session chaired by Sunmesh Joshi, ITS, DGM, marketing, BSNL.
The panel was of the view that there are many value added services available in the country but very few are known. Joshi felt that the use of VAS should be made simple and this effort will only come with easy accessible handset settings. Experts from the VAS industry explained their business models which could work in the VAS telecom landscape of India.
Abhinav Mathur, chief strategy and technology officer at Spice Digital said that networked innovation is the way to the future. He said that ‘Build, buy, partner or get late’ should be the strategy of VAS players. Either one should build his own company, acquire a company or should partner with strategic alliances and develop beneficial business models, he elaborated.
Diversified multilingual content should also be made available to bridge the divide between the urban and rural areas. “Mobile VAS has too many players in the industry now. The subscriber mix is changing as there are more rural net additions and on the other hand ARPU (average revenue per user) is falling,” said Sanjay Singh, chief technology officer at One97 Communications.
He added that even though the rural areas are the low ARPU section, the fact is that the next customer is going to be from there. Consumers are now asking for services beyond music and entertainment; giving easy and accessible services to the subscriber will have to be the key focus.
Singh felt the maximisation of current services would be the current business model. “In the next two years we could go to other markets which have a similar ecosystem in India.”
To conclude, every operator will have to understand the customer demands and give quality of services that benefit the consumer. Any strategic business model will have to include consumer needs which have now started going beyond music and entertainment.
Government rolls back prepaid ban in J&K
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the Government of India has decided to roll back a ban on the issue of new prepaid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir, which it had announced in October 2009.
Now, existing prepaid customers can recharge their connections and new connections after a re-verification procedure outlined by the government. The re-verification has been made mandatory for all operators for their existing prepaid and postpaid subscribers, who will have to submit fresh documents of identity.
As per the statement issued by DoT, only one mobile connection (whether prepaid or postpaid) will be allowed per individual. In all, a family will not be allowed more than six mobile connections among its members.
Mobile telephony services were launched in J&K in 2004, eight years after they were launched in the rest of the country, due to security concerns.
Currently, there are five mobile operators in the state – BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular. They have a combined subscriber base of 4.4 million as in December 2009.
BSNL to launch video telephony service next month
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will introduce voice and video over Broadband (VVoBB) or video telephony services for its broadband customers in north and west zone of India in association with Ahemdabad-based IT solution provider Sai Infosystem (SIS). Though the introductory promotional scheme has been announced by BSNL, the commercial launch will happen in a month.
This BSNL VVoBB service will allow users to talk to as well as see each other. The service will be launched under the BSNL brand name and SIS will be the backend technology provider. Apart from providing the technology, SIS will have the responsibility of selling, installing and maintaining the customer premises equipment.
The services to be launched on the network are voice over internet protocol, video and voice over internet protocol, video mailing service, public call offices, IP centrex services, video conferencing services and calling cards for international calls.
A one-time registration cum activation charge of Rs 100 will be charged for the service and the usage charges will be 40 paise for non-video calling and Rs 2 for a domestic video calls. Data transfer for VVoBB shall not be accounted in normal download charges of broadband for the customer. A promotional tariff for a period of 90 days for the VVoBB services is displayed on the BSNL website.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra, Anil Jain, general manager, marketing, BSNL said, “The services will be launched in next one month.” The revenue accruing from these services will be shared between BSNL and SIS in a proportion defined in the MoU between the two, a statement from SIS Systems says.
Sai Infosytem has a pan-India presence with a turnover of Rs 416 crore. The company has 10 branch offices, over 90 support service centers, one manufacturing unit. SIS has plans to start its operations in Middle East.
The VVoBB service has been available to the enterprise customers from over three months now. These service were available from VPN (virtual private network) to VPN connection for the enterprise users. Moreover, the call could only be made in domestic domain. But now the service will be available to the individual broadband users also. Through this, the BSNL VVoBB subscriber can make international calls also.
Idea Cellular expands network in J&K
Aditya Birla Group-owned GSM service provider Idea Cellular has expanded its presence in
Jammu and Kashmir by launching its services in nine districts in the valley, according to an
official release. The company now covers 12 districts in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Idea has expanded its network with nearly 300 cell sites (consisting of towers and other
communication equipment), covering Srinagar city, Badgam, Anantnag, Mattan, Kulgam, Pulwama,
Shopian, Ganderbal, Patan and Sumbal in the valley, in addition to its recently launched
network in Jammu City, Bari Brahmana, Bishnah, Katra, Udhampur and the Jammu-Katra highway.
Mobile users in Kashmir will now get Idea’s ‘Choose your
number’ service, wherein new subscribers can send an SMS from an Idea number and
get a choice of mobile numbers. The operator has also launched a CUG (closed user group)
pack at call rate of 18 paise per minute within a group, with rent of Rs 18 per month.
“The expansion of our services to Srinagar will enable the people of the state
capital and large parts of the valley to enjoy the same mobility services of Idea Cellular,
as in Jammu and the rest of the country,” said Anish Roy, chief operating
officer, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, Idea Cellular in a statement.
“We understand the mobile communication needs of the people, and the unique
geography of the region, based on which we have designed a network that covers large
population areas, and a product portfolio suiting the needs and affordability of the local
populace,” added Roy.
Idea’s network of customer service centres and retail outlets in the state is
being expanded to 18 exclusive Idea Points, and 3,400 other retail outlets. The company has
introduced a voice portal with content in the areas of news, sports, entertainment, and
other regional content in Dogri and Kashmiri languages for its subscribers in Jammu and
Kashmir.
Earlier, in November last year the service provider had launched its network in Assam in the
North East of India.
Idea launches 1p per two sec plan for Gujarat
Idea Cellular has announced two low tariff plans for its prepaid and postpaid customers in the circle of Gujarat. The telecom operator has launched one paisa per two seconds and 10 paisa per minute plan for prepaid customers and a free CUG feature (intra-group) plan for postpaid users, which includes calls to others outside the group at one paisa per second and 50 paisa per minute.
As per a company statement, postpaid subscribers can use the CUG feature to avail free calling to a selected group. They can get unlimited inter calling within a group with 24,000 local seconds or 400 local minutes and 150 local SMS free with a rental of Rs 249. All local and STD calls outside the group can be made at on paisa per second or 50 paisa per minute depending on the plan. Group size can be anywhere between three and 10 members.
For prepaid subscribers, local calls come at a tariff plan of one paisa per two seconds, for which they need to buy a special voucher for Rs 47. To avail local calls at 10 paisa per minute, the voucher comes at Rs 123.
Arul Bright, chief operating officer, Gujarat, Idea Cellular, said in the statement, ” Our consumer usage analysis has thrown up very interesting results that truly highlight what customers in Gujarat prefers while choosing a plan. These plans will help family members and close friends to stay connected with each other without worrying about cost.”
Earlier in January, MTS also launched one paisa per two seconds tariff plan for local calls in Haryana. Presently all major operators are offering prepaid services at one paisa per second tariff, which was first launched by GSM player Tata Docomo.
Industry has faith in devotional VAS
With the rise in telecom value added services, devotional services are also growing very fast and almost all major telecom operators offer them in the form of ringtones, CRBT (caller ring back tunes), wallpapers, screen savers, mobile prayers and alarms. A report on mobile VAS in India by IAMAI and IMRB says that the value added services industry stood at Rs 5,780 crore annually in end June 2008. Out of this, P2P SMS contributes Rs 2140 crores and this goes only to the operators (the balance Rs 3640 crores is divided among the different stakeholders including the operators).
Presently several operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Indicom are offering devotional VAS directly either through voice or through their WAP sites using dial-in and subscriptions.
Most operators charge their customers on the basis of the services that they use – Rs 6 per minute for dialling in and listening to devotional songs, Rs 3 per SMS for downloading verses and spiritual quotes and Rs 30 per month for subscription based services such as daily updates on verses and festive darshans.
Airtel subscribers can select devotional songs, available in multiple languages, to set them as wake-up call alerts on their landlines or mobile phones. The company also provides content related to different religions of the world including spiritual gurus and institutions such as ISKCON and Art of Living Foundation.
Another telco, Vodafone, provides devotional alerts through SMS and voice in the form of verses from Bible and Shlokas from Hindu scriptures. Users can also dial certain service numbers to listen to Gurbani, devotional songs, prayers and Osho’s philosophy. They can also get quotes from the Pope.
A Vodafone Essar spokesperson tells Telecom Yatra, “A large section of customers subscribe to devotional services on their mobiles. The IVR (interactive voice response) based voice streaming service is equally popular, where customers can dial in to listen to their choice of devotional songs. We also offer a unique service, which is gaining popularity, where registered subscribers get called by the system at a specified time daily to hear their choice of devotional content. Devotional services are particularly popular among our subscribers in Northern India from across age groups.”
Bangalore-based VAS company OnMobile, which provides services to mobile, landline and media service providers, offers devotional VAS products to operators. The company provides content related to all major religions of the world.
Kiran Anandampillai, vice-president, products, OnMobile, says, “Demand for these services is very good. Wherever we have launched these services, the response has been phenomenal. In caller tunes, which have the highest penetration level in VAS, of the total songs downloaded, about 11 to 15 per cent are devotional in nature. In terms of sales of wallpapers and imagery, devotional is the second most downloaded category after ‘babes’. Many people like having devotional wallpapers on their home screens.”
Reliance Communications also has an interesting portfolio of devotional services on offer. The company provides prayer alarms and other voice based services such as Geeta sar (verses from the Bhagwad Geeta), Gurbani, Bible verses, Mukhwak, Nineam as well as packs which include complete festive darshan from temples on mobile phones.
Krishna Durbha, head of VAS, Mobile Data and content at Reliance Communications, says, “Devotional content is only 10 per cent of over 7,000 full songs and videos sold every day in India, but demand is on the rise. About 60 per cent of the mobile content downloaded is in local languages and the demand for devotional content is growing bigger in South India.”
Durbha adds, “Reliance Mobile offers unlimited access to devotional services for Rs 30 per month. This segment is showing rapid growth, especially from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. We are targeting leadership position in this niche segment. The company sees a revenue upside of over Rs 60 crore on an annualised basis from devotional VAS.”
India being a land where religion is an important aspect in the lives of people, there is no doubt that uptake of devotional services on mobile phones will only grow further.
Videocon unveils new handsets in Maharashtra
The Videocon group has launched a new range of mobile handsets in Maharashtra. Its handsets have all the basic features such as FM radio, single and dual SIM, MP3 music, camera and multimedia.
Videocon’s existing sales and marketing network will help establish a pan-Indian presence for its new range of cell phones. The company also plans to expand across the country by appointing a network of dealers and distributors, with a purpose reach and penetration.
VN Dhoot, chairman and managing director, Videocon Group, said in a statement, “Videocon is happy to launch its mobile phones and intends to be amongst the top three in this segment in a year’s time. Mobile phones are today an integral part of more than five hundred million people and growing. Our fit in this very existing business is natural.”
Rahul Goel, chief operating officer, Videocon Mobile Phones Division, added, “We are targeting sizeable sales of handsets in terms of volume and value by establishing relationships with channel partners and operators.”
In November 2009, Videocon entered the handset market by launching a range of GSM handsets in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry and Mumbai, priced between Rs 1,600 and Rs 18,500.
The Rs 24,000 crore Videocon group is mostly known for consumer electronics and home appliances and sells its appliances to markets in Europe, West Asia, Latin America, Nigeria and Indonesia.
TRAI calls for papers on mobile apps
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in association with The World Bank, has proposed a national forum on mobile applications in April. The proposed National Forum on Mobile Applications for Inclusive Development and Sustainable Development will offer an opportunity to all stakeholders to present project ideas, policy papers and case studies related to mobile applications.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra, DK Agrawal, deputy advisor, TRAI, said, “It would be a platform to discuss the present and future of mobile applications. The world is moving from fixed to mobile and applications that were available online are now being made available on mobile phones. Mobiles are affordable as compared to computers and in India mobile phone subscribers are growing at a fast pace.”
He added, “Based on the discussions (in the forum), we will think of relevant policies and regulations. TRAI, Reserve Bank of India and the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) will surely think of policies based on forum’s outcome.”
As per a statement on TRAI’s website, selected papers from the conference will be considered for publication. The statement also gives details on how interested parties can present their proposed papers. The last date for final paper submissions is March 26.
The statement adds that the proposed topics for the Forum are: High level overview of mobile applications, present status of e‐governance practices and synergy required for mobile governance, international experience in development of mobile applications to provide public services and challenges, mobile banking and m‐commerce, tele-medicine and e‐health applications, mobile applications for education and agriculture.
BSNL, MTNL share 3G experiences
The 3G India Mobile Operators Executive Summit was held in New Delhi on Tuesday to throw light on several facets of the third generation (3G) network and to discuss ways in which operators can maximise their revenues from its deployment.
In a panel discussion on ‘Making 3G a Commercial Reality in India’, several industry veterans spoke on business strategies to tackle declining ARPU (average revenue per user) in telecom services, deployment strategies for nationwide coverage and operational challenges for running dual technologies (2G and 3G). Present on the panel were RN Prabhakar, member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI); AK Bhargava, principal general manager, wireless services, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited; SS Sirohi, principal general manager, VAS, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Tommy Quitt, general manager, RBU Asia at ITI Telecom. The session was moderated by Kunal Bajaj, managing director, BDA.
The discussion kicked off with Bhargava and Sirohi speaking on the challenges MTNL and BSNL have faced with 3G network deployment. According to Bhargava, MTNL’s 3G roll out was quicker than 2G as the company had used the established infrastructure and technology for the former. He said that the best strategy for operators who are planning to start 3G services is to “leverage their existing infrastructure”. He added that while “there are no challenges on the technology side, there are challenges from the ancillary aspects such as billing, CRM and customer acquisition.”
Bhargava also said that there are challenges in educating the customer as the customer thinks that 3G services are drastically different from the existing ones and expects these services to be available at the same tariff. “Customers don’t care about 2G and 3G. Increased bouquet of services at same tariffs is what customers want,” he added.
Sirohi took the discussion forward by saying that the “roll out of 3G services will have to be seamless and if the coverage is not complete in a city, the user experience gets a jolt.” He added that when 2G and 3G are running together, “there are challenges in terms of handover and the network takes time to stabilise.” Sirohi echoed Bhargava’s views on educating the customer and said that “educating the customer is extremely important. With the deployment of this new technology, you certainly would like to have this as a premium service for premium customers. “But we found that when we planned a strategy with 3G tariffs slightly higher than 2G, people were not willing. We failed to educate our customers,” he added.
Speaking on the challenges, Quitt said that it is not enough to buy network, there are lot of other challenges too such as Bandwidth consumption.
Prabhakar remarked, “We (TRAI) are getting a lot of complaints for quality of service on 3G. Till the network really stabilises, TRAI will have to take care of the quality of service.”