Tata Indicom, the CDMA brand of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), has announced the launch of a new value-added service named Comedy Junction.
The service will be accessible to existing as well as new postpaid and prepaid subscribers through the operator’s voice portal.
With Comedy Junction, users can listen to stand-up comedians such as Raju Srivastava, Ehsaan Qureshi, Ranvir Shorey, Bhagwat Mann, Suresh Albela etc. by dialing in to the interactive voice portal.
Other categories such as love jokes, pranks and shayari etc. are also available.
Customers can avail a trial period of 5 minutes free of cost before subscribing to the service, which is available at a monthly subscription of Rs 30 with toll free browsing of up to 60 minutes.
S Ramakrishna, regional chief operating officer, South East, Tata Teleservices, said, “It will definitely generate excitement amongst our subscribers and will increase the level of involvement with its regional content.”
The service is available in 14 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, Assamese, Kannada, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Rajasthani and English.
Tata Indicom launches Comedy Junction
Hungama to launch audio portal
Hungama Mobile, one of the largest aggregators of mobile content, is planning to launch an audio entertainment portal. The portal is a voice based platform and will be accessible via a short code on all operator networks.
“The audio entertainment portal has already been integrated on all operators and it will go live shortly,” said Albert Almeida, chief operating officer, Hungama Mobile.
Almeida believes that voice based services have a lot of scope mainly because of their universal appeal. “A person just needs to dial a number to access the service; there is no need for typing or literacy. This makes these services very powerful.”
Another voice based service offering from Hungama, the Jukebox, has been received well.
The service is already available with Airtel, Tata Docomo, Videocon and Reliance. With this service, users can dial in, subscribe and download songs. The USP of this service is that it integrates with social networking sites and hence allows users to publish 20 second clippings of songs to their social networking site.
Almeida says, “The customers are migrating to this service from other mobile services. The service is growing and with 3G coming, the same product could be a mobile video station”.
He adds, “Another service that is drawing a huge response is full song download with Vodafone. The service has generated huge business for Vodafone and in turn for us.”
In the coming years, Hungama expects mobile gaming to grow significantly. “We have made huge investments in mobile gaming and expect a lot to happen in this segment in the coming years. We are already seeing double digit growth in this segment and 3G would take it to a different level all together.”
However, even with 3G, music and movies will continue to be the major revenue generator. “Music and movies are part of our religion. Music will continue to be the driver only in newer forms. Right now, downloading high quality full songs is not the easiest experience,” opines Almeida.
Currently, caller ring back tones contribute 60-65 per cent to the VAS entertainment revenues of the industry and account for about 40-45 per cent of Hungama’s total revenues.
Almeida believes, “3G would give us the opportunity to monetise what we have. It would drive innovation and create newer apps which will increase consumption.”
He adds, “We are witnessing a significant change at Hungama. We look at ourselves as the content, technology and distribution company. We are now evolving into a product and managed services kind of company.”
CDMA iPhone likely to come to India
Apple might be planning to launch a CDMA version of the popular iPhone in India.
The handset giant is holding discussions with Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for bringing an iPhone using CDMA or code division multiple access technology to India, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There are currently three operators in India whose networks run on CDMA technology – Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and MTS.
The news of Apple making a CDMA version of its iPhone that will be available with Verizon Wireless early next year in the USA is already ripe. It is also rumored that China Telecom is currently in talks with Apple regarding the CDMA iPhone 4 for the Chinese market.
In India, Apple’s iPhone is currently available through GSM operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
Videocon Mobile Phones joins the Android bandwagon
Videocon Mobile Phones has announced its foray into the Android phone market with the launch of Videocon Zeus.
The device runs on Android 2.1 Éclair and is powered by a 600 MHz Qualcomm microprocessor. It comes with a 3.2 inch capacitive screen, 5 megapixel camera and support for WiFi, A-GPS and push mail.
Anil Khera, chief executive officer, Videocon Mobile Phones, said, “The entry into the Android space extends our offering, thus placing us better amongst the leading Indian players, and we are keen to enhance our penetration across the markets.”
Along with Zeus, the handset manufacturer has added four more models to its portfolio of devices, namely V1410, V1603, V1475 and V1606.
Videocon has tried to add some new elements in its devices. While the V1410 comes with integrated Laser Pointer, the V1603 supports dual batteries and dual T Flash card slots.
The model V1475 is a QWERTY phone and will be available in four colours.
The last device to be launched is the V1606, which is a multimedia device and comes with a 2 megapixel HD camera and dual speakers.
Rahul Goel, chief operating officer, Videocon Mobile Phones, said, “With the new launches we try to get interesting new elements in the industry and are very positive that it will create the desired newness in the mobile phone industry.”
Lemon Mobiles launches Duo 525
Lemon Mobiles, a brand promoted by Fastrack Communications today announced the launch of its latest device DUO 525. The company claims that the phone, powered by a 208 MHz processor, is the fastest phone in its category.
The dual SIM device has 80MB of internal phone memory, which can be expanded to 8GB.
It is priced at approximately Rs 3,800 and will be available in three colours red, royal blue and black. A 2GB Memory card pre loaded with multimedia content comes with the sales pack.
TTSL crosses 80 mn subscribers mark
Tata Teleservices Limited said it has added 2.14 million new subscribers (wireless and wireline) in September to cross the 80 million subscribers milestone since the launch of its mobile telephony services in early 2005.
The company counted 80,306,495 subscribers (wireless and wireline) on September 30, a press release said.
The crossing of the 80 million subscribers mark by Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited is all the more commendable as the company has shown a subscriber growth rate of more than 100 per cent in the last 12 months.
TTSL has been offering innovative products and services on both the CDMA and GSM platforms, the release said, adding that the company aims to offer even more cutting-edge products and services post the launch of 3G services shortly.
“With the countdown on 3G services having begun, TTSL’s superior 3G-compliant infrastructure, with an assured migration path to 4G and a no-compromise, in built security system will enable Tata Docomo to reap the benefits of its network capabilities.
We have an ambitious target going forward and are optimistic that we will continue to create a portfolio of compelling product and service offerings for our growing consumer base, Executive president of Tata Teleservices’ mobility business division, Deepak Gulati, said.
TTSL is one of India’s leading private telecom service providers having pan-India presence across India’s 22 telecom circles.
Nokia launches N8 smartphone amidst falling market share
Mobile handset leader Nokia, which has been steadily losing out to rivals in general of all hues of late, has launched the much-anticipated smartphone Nokia N8 with Ovi services, in its attempt to claw back market share and remain relevant to fast-changing consumers.
The N8, priced at Rs 26,259 apiece, comes with the Ovi services that enable a user to create content, connect to his/her favourite social networks and enjoy on-demand online television programmes.
“The consumer is in the centre of all that we do at Nokia and we are constantly innovating to enhance user experience and address user feedback,” said Nokia India vice-president and managing director D Shivakumar said at the launch here.
While the company today refused to speak about market share or sales numbers, saying it is in silent mode, according to the latest IDC report, Nokia’s market share plunged to a poor 36.3 per cent by end-June here from 54 per cent at the end of 2009 and over 70 per cent in 2008.
The IDC report shows that domestic companies like Micromax, Spice, Karbon and Lava which import handsets from China, shot up to 33 per cent during the past six months. In 2008, the domestic players had a paltry 0.9 per cent market share.
Airtel Friend locator adds 1.5 lakh subscribers every month
Airtel’s Friend Locator service is adding 1.5 lakh subscribers every month. The service, as its name suggests, helps users know the geographical location of their friends. It has been developed by Telenity.
Telenity is a USA-based company that provides software and services to telecom operators and service providers.
According to sources,”The service has got encouraging response and is adding around 1.5 subscribers every month.”
Yogesh Bijlani, country head and general manager, Asia Pacific, Telenity said, ” The application works on multiple bearers including unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) and the service can reach subscribers using the most basic mobile handsets.” Additionally, Bijlani believes the simplicity of the service makes it popular.
He adds, “Dialing a universal number from any mobile to subscribe to a service makes mass adoption that much easier. The Friend Locator service deployed by Telenity at Airtel is one such service. A subscriber just needs to dial a simple number and no matter which phone he is using, he is enrolled on the service.”
The technology developer is also working with operators to integrate location with mobile marketing and social networking.
When asked about the response from the subscribers for friend Locator service Bijlani refused to comment.
Lava Mobiles in content deal with National Geographic channel
Handset maker Lava today announced a three-year deal with television broadcastor National Geographic for loading content onto its mobile phones.
As part of the three-year association, all Lava handsets will come preloaded with National Geographic Channel content and applications, Lava said in a statement.
This will help users access wallpapers and ringtones of National Geographic Channel in Lava handsets as well as access other NGC content, it added.
“Getting associated with one of the most respectable media house is our one more move towards bringing more value to Lava users. Making NAT GEO knowledge rich content available on the go perfectly fits in our Endeavour to empowering the people of India through consumer insight driven innovations,” Sunil Raina ? product marketing Head, LAVA International said.
Way To Go!
Finding your way to an unfamiliar location is more often than not a herculean task. Most of the times it means asking passers-by and blindly following directions given by them without knowing whether they are right or wrong. Luckily, here technology has come to our rescue.
We can now pinpoint any location on a map and get directions to it easily (in some cases voice guided directions are also available) and this is just one of the benefits that Location-based Services (LBS) have to offer.
Location-based applications can change the way people experience everyday activities like traveling, shopping, eating, watching movie, playing games, doing businesses or even taking a picture.
What is LBS?A report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) defines Location-based services as “information as well as entertainment services, accessible through mobile network which uses geographical position of mobile handset to offer relevant content.”
IAMAI classifies them into four categories namely maps and navigation; tracking services (like tracking vehicle, traffic updates, tracking friends etc); information services (local searched, city guide, weather updates etc); and applications (such as social networking, context advertising etc).
These services could be GPS-enabled as well as non GPS based. GPS (Global Positioning System) is a system which uses satellite communication to connect with a mobile handset and accurately pinpoint the desired location. It gives accuracy ranging between 10-100 meters of the actual location. The disadvantage it has is that it does not fare well indoors.
On the other hand, non GPS LBS systems i.e. which do not use satellite signals, depend on the radio signals transmitted from different ground based station. In this method accuracy varies between positioning technologies and gives accuracy of around 500 meters of the actual location.
Another technology that has come up and is available in all high end mobile phones along with GPS is A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System). A-GPS improves the performance of GPS receivers using an assistance server (usually mobile cell sites) to provide satellite data that receivers would ordinarily have to download from GPS satellites.
Nowadays GPS along with A-GPS is emerging as the preferred medium to push LBS because it gives accuracy of 5-10 meters of the actual location and in some cases can be used indoors as well.
Revenue GeneratorTelco’s are betting big on mobile value added services to boost the constantly dropping ARPU’s which are affecting the their revenues adversely. This is driving them to move beyond offering ringtones and wallpapers in the name of value added services (VAS).
The constant need to offer something extra has LED to the advent of whole bouquet of services on mobile phones be it gaming or social networking or emailing.
Also, if we look at the current scenario VAS is acting as a tool for differentiation amongst operators. In this case, location based services are emerging as a promising option.
According to a report on LBS, mobile VAS accounts to around 10 percent of the total telecom revenues and LBS constitutes nearly 38 percent of the total VAS revenue. This percentage is expected to witness tremendous growth in the times to come.
Naveen Ramakrishnan, senior business consultant, Endeavour Software Technologies said, “LBS is picking up in India and will boom in 3-4 years. Currently the LBS market size is around 20-25 million and should reach 78 million by 2012-2013.”
Globally revenues of telecom companies from LBS alone has increased more than eight times in the last 4-5 years.
At a recent conference on LBS Rakesh Trivedi, general manager, TTSL said, “LBS has several business cases and is a gold mine waiting to be tapped. We are currently looking at offering business to business services. These include tracking services and asset management services.”
Industry experts believe that the reason for LBS not taking off is more due to supply side constraints rather than demand side and if operators adopt the right business model, LBS can generate significant revenues. Operators need to show more commitment towards offering LBS and target the right market segment.
Stumbling BlocksKedar Sohoni, president, Informate Mobile Intelligence points out, “Although these services have a lot of potential, they are more complex to offer as compared to static services.”
Main challenge that these services face in India is availability of quality map data and point of interest (POI) data. It is absolutely necessary to compile data through a comprehensive GIS (Geographic information system) for mapping information regarding POI (eg. cinema halls, petrol pump, restaurant etc.). GIS coverage is an embryonic stage and is available only in major cities.
This needs to be expanded.
Additionally awareness level amongst users is very low. Since the services are new to the users, they are apprehensive about cost and privacy issues.
John Chen, business development manager, India and Middle East region, Asus Technology says, “People here are not yet used to using navigation mainly because of habit. Also, there is a perception about it being expensive. If you see outside India, in countries like USA and Europe people are used to navigation, there you’ll find a navigation device in almost every car.”
The next challenge is availability of GPS and A-GPS devices for the mass market. However, with the smartphones becoming a rage amongst the people (mainly due to their falling prices), this issue will be easier to deal with.
What LBS can doAt present use of location based services in limited to maps. Sohoni observes, “The trends that we have observed show that maps like Google maps and Nokia maps have seen good amount of usage, they are very popular. Meanwhile, other services have failed to pick up.”
The potential of these services lies in the fact that they can be tied up with any other value-added services be it social networking, enterprise services or even mobile games and advertising.
Rakesh Mahajan, vice president, marketing and business head, VAS and Incubation Mobile Services, Airtel had earlier told Telecom Yatra, “Location awareness is very important for every VAS service as LBS can be offered as standalone service or can be clubbed with other services without being marketed as such.”
Nitish Mittersain, chief executive officer, Nazara Technologies, “The scope of location based services is tremendous across genres like entertainment, m-commerce, mobile advertising and business applications. In fact LBS will give mobile advertising a good boost.”
Sharing the same view, Naveen Ramakrishnan, senior business consultant, Endeavour Software Technologies, “Location-based marketing and advertisement has a big scope.”
Also, telco’s can look at advertisement based LBS or proximity advertisement, which has a potential of being a major revenue generator, it gives information on discounts and offer on different products and services to user as he nears within a certain range of the store.
Mittersain further informs, “We are also experimenting with it and are working at using LBS in gaming. It is already present in some markets and doing pretty well.”
Another service that will pick up would be voice guided navigation which comes in very handy while driving. The Voice commands tell you the estimated distance of travel and where to take turns. It also guides you through the shortest route or a route with lesser traffic.
Location based services can also prove very useful in rural areas. For eg. LBS can be used to provide weather information to a fisherman on the high seas. In fact, IVR or SMS, which don’t require a high end device, can be used to take the services to the less educated mobile users. LBS can even be be used to assist health care.
Also, the potential of LBS in times of emergency and disaster management can not be ignored.
Meanwhile, an area where use of LBS cannot be ignored is the enterprise services. Services like fleet management and resource tracking are set to become one of the main revenue generators.
Ramakrishnan said , “LBS are of great importance specially when integrated with enterprise applications. We offer LBS based enterprise applications and they are doing well.”
An interesting application of these services will be Mobile Augmented Reality Browser which basically enables in getting real time information as seen from camera of the mobile handset. It needs a camera mobile phone, GPS connection and Layar mobile app.
Future: Definitely brightThe industry seems to be quite confident that location based services are here to stay and given the application to which these can be put to use, it shouldn’t be a surprise.
In the near future mobile phones will also be able to support a high-end 3D mapping GPS application, with the roll out of 3G services. And who knows in future, location-based application of our mobile could drive the car as well!
But for all this to come true the operators, handset manufacturers, application developers and content providers need to come together to create a conducive environment for growth of LBS.