With operator revenues continuing the downward spiral, what with the recent price wars and per-second tariffs, SPs are now all set to focus their full attention on VAS space.
Terming this as the only way to stabilise revenues, RN Prabhakar, member, TRAI, said, “MVAS has become increasingly important for the telecom operators with the intense competition bringing down the ARPU and tariffs.”
Shyam Mardikar, sr VP - Networks, Bharti Airtel, elaborating on how VAS has a crucial role to play in upping operator revenues, said, “Telecom is a mature business and the consumer is choosy. Quality of services thus needs to be refined and optimised, and manifestation of existing services has to be done”.
According to him, at present VAS is not an optimum source of revenue, as there is no personalisation of services, dedicated to individual need. Personalisation, he feels, is the key to increasing revenues from VAS space.
Agreeing with him, Lloyd Mathias, President & CMO, Tata Teleservices, said, “The next frontier in the carrier space is VAS, as operators are heavily losing out on revenues. Not only does mobile telephony provide scope for raising the GDP, it can be an efficient resource mobiliser, if optimally offered.”
According to him, targeting the growing rural market with over 70-80 per cent of the country's teledensity is the focal point, as presently, high ARPUs and infrastructural problems are preventing operators from reaching out to this segment.
Reaching out to farmers with crop-related data, and weather conditions or providing fishermen with various daily market rates, for example, is key to increasing profitability in this sector. Innovative services related to tele medicine, tele education, mwallet and mbanking at an affordable cost, paves the way for high ROI, as this segment will be willing to pay the cost of these services, if made available at their doorstep.
With TRAI's plans to introduce the Do-Call registry (DCR) service to help customers avoid unnecessary telemarketing calls, it falls on operators to do a clear study of the market and target individual customers according to their individual content needs, for example, with location-based services, coupons and movie tickets, or traffic and news alerts.
According to Srinivas Gopal, GM-Marketing (VAS), Idea Cellular, “Mobile advertising has a huge scope in VAS, as long as it caters to personal needs of the consumer. We have received numerous complaints by subscribers asking why they are receiving unsolicited marketing calls, and not getting information which they really need, instead. Thus, providing content for core needs, will lead the way for effective two-way communication, ie, getting customer feedback and offering content on the same. Idea Cellular's Talk for India campaign is a good example of a need-based marketing strategy.”
Mathias also spoke about how VAS had failed to target real end-consumers, especially in terms of NGN services being offered only on high-end handsets, which are currently not affordable to either youth or rural segment, who form the bulk of mobile users in the country.
“At present social networking sites are used mainly by youth, but unfortunately most of these consumers have no access to this service on mobiles, as they are accessible only via high-end handsets. Simple changes like introducing an sms-based application, for example, which can say, allow youngsters to change their status message on social networking sites, will be a step forward in extending such services to a wider subscriber base. This will also help in curbing the operator churn,” he says.
Speaking about steps in this direction being taken forward by BSNL, SS Sirohi, Principal GM & Head, VAS, BSNL, said, “While mobile advertising and location based services are in their initial stages, nearly 7.5 lakh customers are using 3G BSNL, which is currently available in 300 cities. Our target is to spread out to 700 cities by July 2010. In addition, IPL will be merging with Youtube, to offer subscribers the chance to watch real-time matches on their mobiles, with a choice of 36 camera angles to choose from.”
According to S Krishnan, CTO, Datacom Solutions, “Video and music streaming and real-time tv options, where subscribers can watch what they want, when they want at very high speeds, unlike that provided by a regular broadband connection, is the way forward in increasing operator revenues through VAS.”
Adding to his statement, Sirohi said, “The speed of 3G currently is 3.5 Mbps; however, if the download speed is enhanced or the bandwidth is increased, users will have an enriched experience by being able to download movies, games, and utilities at a faster rate.”
He went on to say, “New customers, new platforms, new generators and new operators are joining the market everyday, so the opportunity is tremendous.”
Thus, to conclude, in the words of Prabhakar, “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 being a part of the change.”
Beryl Menezes
berylm@cybermedia.co.in
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