The IT and telecom industry has seen then creation and growth of two large industry segments in the past 15-20 years. The first has been in IT and business process outsourcing. The second has been in the mobile space, with the creation of an industry that now generates over $20 billion (Rs 100,000 crore) in annual revenue.
There is a third revolution that is waiting in the wings to happen – in mobile data.
In the years to come, the contribution of MVAS (non-voice services) to the ARPU is likely to grow. What else can be done to provide a healthy, competitive environment in which operators and MVAS companies can both compete and co-operate to create solutions which make the mobile a magic lamp in the hands of consumers, make India a world leader in mobile data, and hopefully, help in the creation of the next Microsoft / Cisco / Google in the world?
In this context, some of the posts I have written on my blog over the past year are useful backgrounders. Here is a list in reverse chronological order:
- Ideas for New Mobile Operators: Overview, Idea 1: A flat-rate data plan for Rs 99 per month, Idea 2: Create an open VAS Platform with 60% revenue share to content and service providers, Idea 3: Open the user profile to service providers, Idea 4: Invertising for ads and marketing information from companies (Jul 09)
- State of the Internet in India: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (Jun 09)
- TRAI MVAS Paper Comments (Jan 09)
- 2009 India Mobility Trends (Dec 08)
- Growing Mobile Data and VAS in India (Dec 08)
- India’s Red and Blue Mobile Markets (Dec 08)
- The Need for a Mobile VAS Operator Licence (Nov 08)
- Evolving the Mobile VAS Industry (Nov 08)
- From SMS Subscriptions to VAS Operator…
- …From VAS Operator to Mobile Computing Operator (Sep 08)
- Next Mobile Opportunities (Aug 08)
- India’s Mobile VAS Industry (Aug 08)
So, what should the MVAS Agenda for India be?
Continued tomorrow.
