Flytxt launches QREDA

Is India ready for e-commerce?

Is India ready for e-commerce? It is a well-known fact that most retail activity in the country still happens through small family-owned neighbourhood stores, which have so far been able to face competition from the organised retail sector. Unlike other countries, where the retail sector has been around for a very long time, in India, it is a nascent proposition. In such a scenario, can retail players really find a foothold online, or is e-commerce to be relegated to just a few services, like travel?

Raghavendra Madhav, Executive Director, Astro Group, whose organisation has invested in Aircel, Red FM and Sun DTH, to name a few companies, felt that this wasn’t necessarily the case. He said. “The issues facing us are lack of trust in the seller, that the product that a customer gets will not be what he asked for, fear of credit card payment, and the ‘touch’ issue, of wanting to see and feel a product before spending our money on it. But these problems are steadily being resolved. Other issues include those about back-end and supply chains, and attitude change. At the end of the day, the reason why a lot of companies are not online is because companies are run by people and the people running companies are not comfortable with the technology. As that changes, the adoption rates will increase.”

The emergence of a number of successful categories, like fashion and group buying, have also shown that there is a market for online transactions, and adding value propositions will lead to more users. Madhav cited the example of the mobile space, where until an year ago, VAS was considered secondary to rolling out more coverage, more stores, and picking up more subscribers. He said, “For Aircel, the proposition right from the beginning was that the mobile is for everyone, the Internet is for everyone. Even the guy who just wants to pay for a ten rupee pre-paid card to access it for just one day. Outside of Delhi and Mumbai, in small towns and semi-rural areas, that’s where India is and those are the people one has to reach. Mobile is going to be one of the key drivers there.”

Kedar Gavane, Director, comScore India, sees a growth in digital retail as well, and points to how in the last 12 months retail sites have seen a 39 per cent increase in traffic. He said, “The top categories for online sales were for software, movies, and now increasingly, electronic goods.” Gadgets are quickly becoming very popular items to buy online, perhaps because one is buying the brand, it is standardised, so if you know the model number, you know exactly what you’re getting. As a part of the overall online audience, Gavane said, “In the US, 85 per cent of the audience visits online retail. In India, the number is around 55 per cent, but this has been rising. Around 70 per cent is male and 30 per cent female, but retail has a broad appeal through the age demographics, unlike, say banking or social media, which are skewed towards younger users.”

While retail is on the rise, Gavane does caution that for marketers online, it is important to look beyond the clicks. He said, “The Internet is very measurable, but are we measuring the right things? Every other medium receives ads based on reach and frequency. It’s time that the Internet also started doing this, on an engagement model instead of performance. The fact is that the Internet is often seen as a low cost path, this has already happened with ad rates, and one worry is that retailers are bringing people online through discounts, but if that is the only feature that is stressed, then that could also become a bottleneck to eventual growth.”

Paresh Rajde, Founder, MD and CEO of Suvidhaa, is of the opinion that online service is far closer to maturity that physical retail. He said, “Our business runs a series of franchises, where a person can come with cash to our retail point and perform the online transaction. Our partners are varied, from Fun Cinemas to IRCTC, but in all these cases, it works in the Indian scenario because with the franchisee, we promise customer-friendly service, which allows them to transact in cash, and as soon as they’re done, they get what they paid for. With goods, it becomes more complicated – people would have to wait for delivery and might not be satisfied with the product, but with services, like bill payment for example, it’s a simple, well-understood premise.”

While the issues are at hand, the fact is that as adoption rises, which could get a boost with the coming 3G wave, mobile commerce will in particular be at the forefront of developments in retail, whether offline or online, and the real growth opportunities lie with the big brands, which do not have to overcome issues of trust or standardisation and already have many resources in place to help cover the logistics of such an operation. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen, but more and more players are now entering into the space, so that instead of solely digital operators, we are seeing a market where digital and offline will complement each other, not compete. source

Enhanced Missed Call Alerts Service in Reliance

Reliance Communications, India’s largest and only telecom service provider to offer nationwide GSM, CDMA and 3G services launched MCA 2.0 with Notify Me, its new missed call notification service with enhanced features.

Reliance Customers will receive missed call alert as at present – which tells a subscriber if they have missed a call due to their phone being either out of coverage area, battery exhaustion, phone is busy or switched off. In addition, 'Notify Me' alerts the callers, whose attempt to ring someone have failed, that the called number is now available to receive a call from them.

Reliance Communication, Head of VAS- Anil Pande said "Missed Call Alert Service 2.0 with Notify Me is a great convenience for Mobile users. It offers both Caller and Called Party instant notification to connect again, without being bothered with repeatedly attempting to connect."

The missed call notification sms will detail the calling party’s mobile number, time & date when the call was made, whereby calling parties will receive a sms saying that the called party is available to receive calls.To subscribe to this service, Reliance customers have to type "M" and send an SMS to 51234 (toll free). Customer will be charged Rs. 15/- for 30 days for unlimited alerts.

The offer is also available through Chat and Play e-recharge in all retails outlets serving Reliance GSM, CDMA and 3G customers including the company’s retail outlets of Reliance Mobile Stores and Reliance World outlets across India.

TRAI - Boon or Bust for SMS Pull services

No doubt unsolicited calls and SMS have been a menace to Indian society for a long time. People from both sides of the table have lobbied extensively with the government to keep their side of the business running. TRAI created the National Do Not Call registry against this Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), but without enforcement or awareness it just seemed like an half hearted attempt. But now with the new guidelines being laid down by the TRAI (now called NCPR) it appears that the government is indeed serious to curb this menace. Or is it?
NCPR appears to have sharper claws compared to NDNC by making the operator party to the UCC. Operator cannot get away this time by passing the blame on to the aggregator. The fines imposed on a complaint registered are quite steep to make both the operator and aggregator sit up and screen the messages being sent over their network. For Bulk SMSes, it defines two categories, Transactional and Promotional. Transactional SMS, according to their FAQ is any message sent by Financial institution, Railways, Airlines or Educational institutions to it’s registered users. Everything else is termed as Promotional.
It appears that the consumers are indeed going to be happy with this new guideline if implemented and enforced to the dot. But they will also not be able to use any of the pull services that they were used to due to this blanket ban on such communication. Google (SMS number 9 77 33 00000), Facebook (92-FACEBOOK) and our own direction services (90088 90088) rely on consumers sending a SMS, and the service replying to the requested sms. TRAI guideline does not talk about these services, and since the operators are going to term any Bulk SMS as a promotional SMS,

• People registered in NCPR/NDNC will not be able use these services,
• People will lose interactivity as the message now will not come from the virtual 10 digit number and
• No one (even people not registered in NCPR/NDNC) will be able to use the service between 9PM and 9AM.

This guideline is definitely something good against the UCC, but it appears that not a lot of thought has been given while drafting it. TRAI seems unapproachable to any of our queries. It requests Tele-Marketer to register with http://www.nccptrai.gov.in after paying Rs 10,000/- and download the list of NCPR registered users for scrubbing, but the site just provides a CSV file with zero rows in it.
Is this yet another half hearted attempt by the TRAI to address Unsolicited communication? Is this going to kill the nascent industries banking on SMS pull services?
Only time will tell.

Way2Sms Will No Longer Allow Your Number As Sender

Until now, you are allowed to send SMS with your Number as Sender ID on Way2Sms. But the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently issued new regulations on the SMS industry in India. With these new rules, you will no longer send SMSs with your number as sender. These rules will be followed by every SMS service provider from 1st Feb 2011.
Every SMS service provider has to adhere to the new TRAI NCPR (National Consumer Preference Register (NCPR)) guidelines. Way2Sms is the one of the first and reputed free SMS service provider and they also have to follow these rules strictly and have decided that they will no longer allow any user to send SMS with their number as Sender ID.

As part of implementing new TRAI guidelines, way2sms has worked tirelessly to further upgrade their internal processes, technology, and team to ensure 100% compliance of the new regulations. In order to adhere to TRAI guidelines way2sms is also changing its messaging policies from 1st of Feb. 2011 onwards.
New Policies

• According to the New TRAI guidelines, No SMS provider is allowed to deliver SMSs to NDNC/NCPR listed mobile numbers. So, Starting from Feb 1st 2011 way2sms does not deliver SMSs to NDNC//NCPR Listed mobile numbers.
• TRAI New guidelines does not allow any service provider to use Numeric mobile number as the sender. So, Starting from Feb 1st, way2sms is changing its Message structure.

So all messages sent via way2sms will be sent as " TD- XXXXX" as the  sender. No Longer you can use your mobile number as sender. Your Mobile number and a 8 letter Nick name will be inserted in your   message by default. However you can continue to enjoy 140characters  message same as before.
All free SMS service provider will have to follow these new rules otherwise TRAI has to take strict steps against service provider. So you can take advantage this month only or try to find another service provider who dares enough to stand against TRAI .
Meanwhile, if you want to send free SMS without any registration, check out this post 3 ways of sending free SMS without registration.source

India’s cellular Boom Unabated, as 3G Rolls out

Large amounts of Indians are acquiring new cellular connections, which rose to 23 million in November, up from 19 million with the prior month.
About twenty % of those 2G subscribers may possibly migrate to 3G companies that take place to be becoming rolled out by crucial operators which includes dominant Bharti Airtel, mentioned Kunal Bajaj, director for indian at telecom consultancy Analysys Mason.
There have been 729.6 million cellular connections on the finish of November, in accordance with information launched through the Telecom Regulatory Authority of indian (TRAI) on Tuesday.
That amount consists of individuals who have additional than a single cellular connection, and also connections that are actually permitted to lapse by some users, in accordance with analysts.
Bharti Airtel and also the third-largest operator, Vodafone Essar, the Indian joint opportunity of Vodafone Group, every additional about 3.1 million subscribers. Reliance Communications, the second-largest operator, additional three million subscribers, even though state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam additional 2.99 million subscribers, in accordance with TRAI.
Most in the subscribers will proceed to 3G to consider benefit of quicker web entry speed, after which after search at other uses like video, Bajaj said. The anticipated availability of 3G-enabled handsets for below US$100 will accelerate this trend, he added.
Mobile operators will also search at 3G like a method to boost typical income every operator (ARPU), Bajaj said. ARPU continues to be dropping in 2G companies simply because of stiff competition, which has pushed lower tariffs.
To counter opposition in urban markets, some operators started out expanding in outlying markets. But in accordance with TRAI data, with the quarter ended Sept. 30, 67 % of subscriber additions have been in urban markets. The fee of development of outlying subscriptions also declined with the quarter, in comparison for the prior quarter, TRAI said.source

Gainers and Losers of MNP RACE

Data gathered during the first four days of MNP in India has revealed that consumers have clear preference for some operators over others.

 

Vodafone Essar, India’s third largest operator, appears to sit the best with consumers, with 61,789 users wanting to switch to it. Aircel comes in second with 28,088 while Idea Cellular comes in third at 15,220, according to data gathered by Financial Express.

 

The country’s largest operator, Bharti Airtel, had just 10,412 users who expressed wishes to switch to it.

 

State-owned BSNL and Reliance Communications, the country’s second-largest operator, appear to be the biggest losers. Net customer loss are estimated at 51,562 and 48,089 respectively.

 

The data also revealed differences in consumers’ preference by region. More than a third of the 30,627 subscribers who wished to port their numbers expressed a preference for Vodafone, while 11,502 out of the 25,000 customers who wanted to port their numbers in Maharashtra preferred Idea Cellular.

 

New operators fared badly, despite MNP being touted as the means for these new entrants to gain subscribers. Sistema Shyam’s MTS emerged the biggest loser, with a net 1,354 customers wishing to port out.

 

A net 956 customers wished to leave Loop Telecom while 288 wanted to exit HFCL. Uninor looked to be the only new entrant who stood to gain, with a net 379 customers wishing to port in.source

Airtel Succeeded in grabbing 1Lac 3G customers within 72 hours of launch

Bullish on 3G:(from left) Mr Atul Bindal, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel; Karthi, actor and brand ambassador; and Mr Vineet Taneja, Operations Director - South, Bharti Airtel, at the launch of 3G services in Chennai on Thursday.

Airtel has succeeded in enlisting over one lakh customers for its range of 3G services within 72 hours of its launch, say company officials.
Mind boggling response
At the launch of the third generation services in Chennai and Coimbatore, Mr Atul Bindal, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, told Business Line, “The response has been mind boggling with the total consumption of around 200 GB a day.”
“We never anticipated such a huge response,” he said.
Bharti Airtel will rollout the services in 13 circles by March. Over the next one year, it plans to extend the services to 1,500 cities and towns , he told newspersons.
In the 72 hours of the service becoming operational in Bangalore, around one lakh customers are enjoying a variety of services, including video call , movies and music, according to a senior company official.
Mr Bindal welcomed Airtel's brand ambassador and cine star Karthi on to the Airtel 3G platform as the first 3G customer in the city. Airtel will offer services such as video call, live streaming of video, high speed Internet, mobile TV entertainment through the 3G technology. Users can also avail themselves of the services through the existing ‘SIM' cards.
For laptop users, Airtel offers 3G ‘dongles,' he said.
Packages
In a bid to attract mass trial and adoption of the service , the company offers packages of up to 10 days. For Rs 8, under the Sachet plan , a user can avail himself of 10 MB of free data (one day validity); and 65 MB for Rs 63 and one day validity.
Mr Bindal said the company's cumulative spending in Tamil Nadu was Rs 7,000 crore.source

Clever services on cheap mobile phones do ROCK in Poor Countries

COUNTERFEIT drugs can make up around a quarter of all those sold in poor countries, according to some estimates. They provide a lucrative and lethal business, against which most consumers are powerless. “If your anti-malaria pill is made of any old white powder, you may not survive,” says Bright Simons, one of the founders of mPedigree, an advocacy group from Ghana.
Mr Simons is not just fighting with words. Late last year mPedigree launched a mobile service in Ghana and Nigeria that could make a dent in the fake-drug trade. People buying medicine scratch off a panel attached to the packaging. This reveals a code, which they can text to a computer system that looks it up in a database. Seconds later comes a reply saying whether the drug is genuine. The service is paid for by pharmaceutical companies that want to thwart the counterfeiters. Hewlett-Packard runs the computer system and found a cheap way to print the scratch-off labels.
This is just one of many such services mushrooming in poor countries, using mobile-phone technology that once carried only humble voice and text messages. Rohan Samarajiva, the boss of LIRNEasia, a think-tank in Sri Lanka, calls it “more than mobile”. Jussi Hinkkanen, Nokia’s head of policy in Africa, says the mobile revolution is moving “from ear to hand”.

The number of users is still small: even among young people in South-East Asia (a tech-friendly lot) only 8% had used “more-than-voice” services, according to a poll by LIRNEasia. But the potential is exciting. Mobile phones are the world’s most widely distributed computers. Even in poor countries about two-thirds of people have access to one (see chart 1). As a result, such devices and their networks, though mainly still much simpler than in the rich world, have become a platform on which many other services can be built. This boosts innovation—just as smartphones and faster wireless data networks have led to an explosion of mobile applications (“apps”).
Classifying mobile services in poor countries is not an exact science. Richard Heeks, director of the Centre of Development Informatics at the University of Manchester, sorts them by their impact on development. One category is services that “connect the excluded”. In their simplest form they provide information to those who would otherwise be out of the loop. Farmer’s Friend in Uganda, for instance, sends out market prices and other agricultural information in text messages.
Such services have been around for some time, but they have become more common—and much more varied. Nokia now provides its Ovi Life Tools, a set of information services from weather to sport, to more than 6m users of its handsets in China, India, Indonesia and Nigeria. Esoko, a Ghanaian “communication platform”, in the words of Mark Davies, its founder, allows two-way communication: people and businesses in 15 African countries can upload their own market or other data, which then become accessible via the internet and mobile phones.
Mobile trading platforms are also in this category. At first most of them focused on agricultural goods: Dialog Tradenet in Sri Lanka lets farmers check market prices and text in offers, helping them to time their harvest to maximise income. But many, including Dialog Tradenet, have other things on offer. In India, Babajob.com lists low-skilled jobs. The most popular items on CellBazaar in Bangladesh are second-hand mobile phones. For people with some cash to spare, KenyaBUZZ, one of the larger local websites in east Africa, is selling tickets for cultural and sports events over the phone.
Mobile phones can also spread learning. In Bangladesh the BBC World Service Trust sponsors a service called BBC Janala that allows people on a few dollars a day to improve their English. After dialling “3000”, they can listen to hundreds of English lessons and quizzes, updated weekly. Mobile operators charge about two cents for each three-minute lesson. Since BBC Janala was launched in November 2009, 3.1m people have used it.
Researchers in South Africa working for SAP, a software giant, are trying to connect very small businesses, which make up a large part of Africa’s economy. One service lets craftsmen create a virtual job docket with a few texts or touches on a smartphone, even without mobile-network coverage. The information is uploaded to a computer system later. Another allows rural stores to order goods, saving time-consuming trips to city markets.

A second category of services includes those that cut out the middleman, or at least keep tabs on him. This is especially helpful in using government services. In the Indian state of Karnataka, corrupt officials would often demand a bribe before issuing landownership certificates, which farmers need, for instance, to obtain a loan. The Bhoomi project helps them directly, by using the internet and mobile phones.
Disintermediation is also made possible by mobile money. Services to transfer cash by text message have been around for some years. One of the most successful, M-PESA, began in 2007 in Kenya, where it now has more than 13m users. It is now used for salaries, bills, donations: few things cannot be paid for via a handset. Similar services can be found in more than 40 countries. Though not yet on the same scale, this seems to be only a question of time: in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, more people have a mobile phone than a bank account (see chart 2).
Other firms are extending the reach of mobile money. Software developed by Tagattitude, a French start-up, uses a handset’s sound channel to transmit money and will be used by several banks in Africa. A Little World, an Indian firm, has combined several pieces of technology to create a “branchless microbanking system” to allow people in remote areas to withdraw cash. A fingerprint reader identifies them and the sum is deducted from their accounts via a special handset. A small printer produces a receipt. The system already has more than 3m users in India. In Andhra Pradesh it directly disburses welfare payments and pensions.

Money on the move in Kenya

The sound of the crowd, texting
A third, perhaps even more promising category is “crowdvoicing”. Ushahidi, founded by a group of activists in Kenya, is among its pioneers. After the country’s disputed elections in 2008, Ushahidi (which means “testimony” in Swahili) mapped reports about violence, most of them text messages, on a website. Now the organisation offers software and even a web-based service to monitor anything from elections to natural disasters. Similarly, text-messaging software called FrontlineSMS collects and broadcasts information.
Such techniques are increasingly applied in other areas, particularly health. Stop Stock-outs, another African group, has used Ushahidi to map where essential medicines are sold out. By checking whether a drug is genuine, users of mPedigree and another Ghanaian service called Sproxil provide real-time data about which illnesses are on the rise (and can be sent more information as needed). In Mali a company called Pesinet gets agents to send in the weight of newborn babies. If the figure falls below a certain level, the baby is examined more closely.
Then there is txteagle, which hopes to reward those willing to perform small jobs on a mobile phone. Its founder, Nathan Eagle, discovered that nurses in Kenya were much likelier to text in the stock levels at their blood banks if they were compensated with a bit of airtime. This got him thinking about whether other tasks could be “crowdsourced” in this way. Today firms use txteagle for translating words into a local dialect and checking street signs for a satellite-navigation service. Mr Eagle hopes that the service will spread far, in particular to Asia.
A fourth and last category hardly exists yet, but could prove the most important, says Mr Heeks: platforms that allow the world’s poor to “appropriate the technology and start applying it in new ways”. One small example is “beeping”: hanging up after a single ring. First used to signal that someone wants to be called back because of lack of credit, it has become a free messaging system. In some countries, street hawkers assign special ringtones to different customers, which are in effect free messages placing orders.
In rich countries, online stores for smartphone apps gave digital innovation a boost. LIRNEasia’s Mr Samarajiva hopes that something similar will happen in the poor world. An early example is AppZone in Sri Lanka. It allows developers to create, test and sell applications, while operators promote them to their customers.
The list will certainly get longer. Whether such services will be commercial successes is another question. Having looked at 400 mobile businesses, the Monitor Group, a consultancy, concludes that too many are dependent on donor money. Social entrepreneurship often muddles demand and need, says Jan Schwier of Monitor. The fact that an African smallholder needs prices for his crops on his mobile does not mean he will pay for them.
Not many services are set up to grow, says Brooke Partridge of Vital Wave Consulting, which advises businesses in emerging markets. Providers lack technology, money and market knowledge. “We don’t need more new services, but a better focus on commercialisation,” she says.
For others bureaucracy, taxation and bad regulation are the obstacles. In many African countries providers of new mobile services cannot deal with network operators directly, but must use intermediaries to get, for instance, a short code for customers to dial. Governments also use mobile networks as cash cows. A study in 2008 by the GSM Association, an industry group, found that the ratio of mobile-related tax to operators’ revenues in sub-Saharan Africa was 30%. Today the share is probably even higher. And regulators often limit competition, for instance by failing to license radio spectrum to new entrants. All this means that mobile communications are more expensive than they need be. “Price remains the major barrier to the growth of mobile entrepreneurship in Africa,” says Steve Song, a telecoms expert at the Shuttleworth Foundation, a think-tank in South Africa.
Talk of a “Development 2.0”—meaning a mobile-driven transformation of how poor countries develop—thus seems premature. But the potential of mobile services should not be underestimated. If they take off, they could transform lives and livelihoods, not just by connecting the world’s poor to the infrastructure of the digital economy, but by allowing them to become digital producers and innovators.
Fanciful? Maybe, but sceptics said the same about the potential of mobile phones in poor countries a decade ago. Just think what would be possible if smartphones and even tablet computers become as cheap and common in poor countries as mobile phones are today.source

TRAI after the SPAM SMSs now

Starting Feb 1st (2011), telecom operators will have to comply to new TRAI guidelines on SMS spam and while the deed is noble, it will create more confusion for consumers.

First, the fineprint.

- From Feb 1, there will only be 2 categories of messages- Transactional (Bank alerts, Railway & Airline alerts, Messages to parents from school etc) and Non transactional or Promotional (all remaining categories except mentioned earlier – like courier alerts, spam, marketing offers, news alerts, subscribed SMS services, intra company or group messages and so on)

- Only transactional messages will have full branded sender id (like TA-HDFCBANK) for others, there will be a 6 digit code (like TA-n12345 or TA-nABCDE), where n is the category of the message and further 5 digits are the unique code given by the telecom operator to each aggregator.

- All non-transactional messages will be compulsorily passed through the NDNC filter.(This means, you will NOT receive the subscribed/ paid news alert or even your courier status message if you are registered with DND) and will be allowed only during 9am to 9pm.

As a consumer, you will now have to open each and every non-transactional message to check on the content. So far, you could easily delete a message just by checking the names, but now ensure that you open each and every sms to see if there is something important.

Moreover, does this mean that you need to unsubscribe from DND to get other relevant & important messages (that TRAI considers non-transactional)?.

What’s your take? What will be the impact of this on bulk sms services? Operators have started testing this regulation – so chances of the implementation being delayed is minimal.source

Self-Service Mobile Developer Program by NUANCE

Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced that it is providing access to the Dragon Mobile SDK for iOS and Android via a new self-service website as part of tThis initiative will enable mobile developers to leverage the powerful dictation and voice search capabilities at the core of the successful Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search apps, as well as Nuance’s trusted Vocalizer text-to-speech (TTS).

The Dragon Mobile SDK is now available through the Nuance Mobile Developer Program for Apple iOS 4.0 (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch) and for many devices running Android 2.1 and higher versions. The SDK currently supports US and UK English, European Spanish, European French, German, Italian and Japanese for dictation and search, with additional languages to be added through the end of the year. TTS capabilities, on the other hand, exist for more than 35 languages including Indian English and Hindi. 

All those developers working in India on applications that are ported to the US, European or Japanese iTunes store or the Android Market can now leverage the power of Dragon Mobile SDK for rapid inclusion of voice recognition into their applications. This is all possible through the new self service developer portal which provides instant access to easy-to-integrate prepackaged wrappers and widgets. Developers also have access to an on-line forum for additional support, a variety of code samples and full documentation. Nuance’s sales and sales engineering staff in India will also help in providing responses for the developer’s queries and facilitate product demonstrations for developers, when required.

“The mobile application explosion is in flight with Apple nearing 10 billion downloads and Android apps expanding rapidly,” said Sunny Rao, Managing Director, India and South East Asia, Nuance Communications. “We’ve created an amazingly simple way for developers to innovate privately and securely on the two fastest growing platforms in the world. India has a thriving developer’s community on the iOS as well as the Android platform, and we are positive that the Mobile Developer Program will witness great traction among those developers focusing on the export markets of the US, Europe and Japan, ” he added. 

Many developers have already experienced the power of the Dragon Mobile SDK for their apps, including Siri, Price Check by Amazon, Ask for iPhone, aisle411, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, and SpeechTrans. 
Nuance Mobile Developer Program Pricing

Developers can download the Dragon Mobile SDK and have access to the cloud-based speech services for 90 days absolutely free. And once ready for market distribution, developers have tiered pricing options to accommodate their unique needs and those of their applications. Nuance also offers a range of developer customization programs including specialized language models and application optimization. To learn more about the Dragon Mobile SDK and supported devices, please visit: http://dragonmobile.nuancemobiledeveloper.com.

9th VAS INDIA 2011 Conference

All the major Indian Telecom Operators along with the Leading VAS technology organisation's will be congregating at 9th VAS INDIA 2011, a single day International Conference which is being  held on February 4th 2011 at Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

Organized by Bharat Exhibitions, VAS India 2011 is India's Premier & Only Forum on VAS for fast growing Indian Telecom Industry.  Now into successful 9th year, VAS INDIA 2011 will offer the best business platform in the country for Indian Telecom Industry to conduct business & share their strategic plans for India A recent study projects value- added services market in India is expected to grow to about US$ 5.6 billion in 2011.

According to Mr. Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva "In an intensely competitive landscape, operators are facing challenges on three key fronts: driving cost efficiencies, ensuring revenue growth and building customer engagement with their brand. Consumers are demanding highly relevant, timely, personalized, content-rich and context-aware value-added services over the mobile – with expectations of consistently high levels of service. In this scenario, the ability to cost-effectively and rapidly retail a wide catalogue of services tailored to specific consumer sub-segments is a critical competitive differentiator for operators. Comviva is supporting operators in this endeavor with solutions that enable VAS business transformation and enable them to realize their business goals.VAS India 2011 is a key forum for Comviva."

Mr. Vishwanath Alluri, CEO, IMImobile says "VAS industry in India has grown distinctively and has opened new avenues for innovative products with the rapid increase in the mobile customer base. With induction of 3G, we believe that video will play a critical role in VAS penetration in India. It will make up for the low penetration of PC. However, availability of 3G enabled phones at lower price will be a critical enabler in the overall push. We are sure that VAS India 2011 will bring thought leaders on one platform and spread the message."

Global majors in the VAS segment are participating in the event - Making it truly global platform to conduct business, Comviva, Motricity, IMI Mobile, Avaya, Gemalto, Ehangcom, Handygo, Flytxt, Creative Software, Foremost, Infogin, Netmagic, Yantra Software will share their strategic plans for India.

Among the Telecom Operators, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance Communications, TATA Teleservices, Sistema Shyam, Virgin Mobile, Etisilat, Uninor, TATA DoCoMo, Videocon, Loop Mobile would be part of the event.

Inaugural Keynote would be delivered by Mr. Prashant Gokarn, Head 3G, Reliance Communications.

According to Mr. Jim Ryan, chief strategy and marketing officer, Motricity, "The future of VAS in India is going to be all about delivering the right stuff to the right person at the right time based upon the right monetization model - be it fee based or ad supported free offerings.  In a vast and diverse market like India, this also means delivering VAS solutions in the right language and in the right format (audio, SMS, web, video).  To solve this complex problem and to capitalize on this tremendous market opportunity, Motricity, through our mCore Platform, delivers high value, and highly personalized VAS solutions to mobile operators around the world, all on a carrier grade managed service basis.  Motricity is excited to be part of one of the fastest-growing, and largest mobile markets in the world and we are very much looking forward to being part of the discussion at VAS India 2011."

Mr. Shashidharan- Managing Director, Bharat Exhibitions the organizer of VAS INDIA 2011, says,  "VAS India 2011 will help in strategizing a strong vision for MVAS Landscape in India as it is an ideal stage between the key influencers and decision makers under one roof. This year's event will develop innovative marketing tools for boosting the penetration of VAS adoption in the 3G Ready India. The renowned industry professionals from across the world would share their knowledge."source

Airtel bets on World Cup, IPL to flag 3G service

India’s largest mobile service operator Bharti Airtel is betting on the upcoming World Cup and Indian Premier League (IPL) to hook customers on to its 3G (third generation) service to view cricket matches live on their mobile phones.
“We will pitch for more subscribers during the World Cup and IPL matches to flag our 3G service being rolled out, as they will be able to capture the exciting matches live from anywhere and when on the move,” Airtel chief executive V. Venkatesh told IANS.
Airtel is the main corporate sponsor for all international cricket series played in India during the next three years, bagging the rights at Rs.3.33 crore per match, covering Tests, one-day internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 (T-20) games.
The 10th International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup ODIs will be played in the sub-continent during Feb 19-April 2 and the fourth edition of IPL T-20 matches in April-May.
The company, which paid Rs.12,290 crore for the 3G spectrum licence in 13 circles, rolled out the high-speed multimedia service this week in Karnataka and plans to cover about 40 cities in other circles by March.
“In the run-up, we will carry promos to showcase the benefits of our latest service in watching the World Cup and the IPL in real time. Such big-ticket sporting events give us an opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the 3G service,” Venkatesh said.
With over 150 million subscribers in the circles, it operates across the country. The company is targeting 20-30 percent of them to migrate to 3G from 2G on its GSM (global system for mobile communication) network in the first year of operation.
“About 20 percent of our customers are already using the 2-2.5G spectrum for various data services, including internet access to check mails, websites, news portals and chat,” Venkatesh said.
“We are confident that they will migrate to 3G for the advantages and host of services we offer at attractive tariffs,” he added.
Airtel chose this tech hub as a launch-pad for unveiling the 3G service as Karnataka is its largest circle by revenue with 15 million customers and commands about 50 percent of the market share in the state.
The company’s high-speed download packet access technology will enable customers to watch live streaming television on the mobile phone with quality visuals and sound.
“It is a common strategy to make best use of sporting events for promoting one’s product or service. We see sales of televisions surge during World Cup soccer, Olympics and international cricket matches in India,” Venkatesh pointed out.
“Similarly, World Cup and IPL offer us a great marketing opportunity to hardsell our new service,” he added.
According to Airtel brand & media head Mohit Beotra, cricket is a game that hooks Indian masses as no other sport so passionately.
“We believe that cricket as a sport represents the zeal and vigour our youth stand for. We are hence looking forward to a long-term association with the game for our brand promotion,” Beotra said in a statement earlier.
The Airtel 3G also gives its customers the power of high speed mobile broadband to enjoy other services, including video calling, social networking, video watching and music downloads.
In view of the competition hotting up, with other operators too rolling out their 3G service, Airtel is offering time-based tariff plans for light users of data where usage and billing will be by hour and flexi-shield plans for heavy users of data where the service will be capped.source

Emerging Mobile Phone Trends

1) Mobile/Social/Local Combinations will Explode but will Generate Little Revenue

As we also recently noted, everyone is getting into mobile/social/local services these days from Facebook to Google and Amazon to Groupon. But Forrester says that while the number and usage of these services will increase, it does not expect the services to generate meaningful revenue in 2011. Also, in a side note, there's bad news for Foursquare buried in the report. Although Forrester doesn't name names, it says that "location-based social networks" will struggle as standalone activities as major players like Facebook integrate location into their services, like Facebook has done with Facebook Places.

2) 2011 is the Year of the "Dumb" Smartphone User

Smartphones will become more affordable, thanks to handset subsidies. And these new users will be less engaged and active than smartphone early adopters. Forrester expects they'll download fewer apps on average, but will consume more mobile media thanks to consumer education and convenience provided by the phones.
Despite the fact that these former "dumb phone" users may download fewer apps than early adopters, the overall app forecast is still good. In fact, Gartner also just released a report that stated mobile app store revenue will pass $15 billion in 2011. It said:

Worldwide mobile application store downloads are forecast to reach 17.7 billion downloads in 2011, a 117 percent increase from an estimated 8.2 billion downloads in 2010...By the end of 2014, Gartner forecast over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first one in July 2008.
Worldwide mobile application store revenue is projected to surpass $15.1 billion in 2011, both from end users buying applications and applications themselves generating advertising revenue for their developers. This is a 190 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $5.2 billion.

(Note: The "dumb" reference in Forrester's trend title is not meant to a slight at the intelligence of these new users, by the way, but the phones they've upgraded from: feature phones, also sometimes called "dumb phones.")

3) The Mobile Fragmentation Problem will Continue

Forrester says it expects fragmentation to continue, but it's not just referring to the multiple variations of a single OS. It means that some customers have smartphones, some have feature phones, some use apps, some use SMS, plus there are multiple OS's in existence, in multiple versions, with multiple screen sizes and there are a higher number of devices out there. In short: fragmentation. The costs of porting, maintaining and promoting apps will remain high.

4) The "Apps vs. Internet" Debate Will Continue...to be Irrelevant

Says Forrester, it's not a question of "either/or" when it comes to a choice between apps vs. the mobile Web, but both. Frequent and intense users of services like banking and brokerage will want curated experiences in the form of apps, but the Internet will remain the fallback for more occasional information and needs. Mobile developers frustrated with the costs of building mobile apps for multiple platforms should rely more on the Web. Even if HTML5 doesn't scale within the next 2 to 3 years, mobile browsing experiences are improving, the report notes. But for targeting the "SuperConnecteds" and "Entertainers" (referring to two types of mobile users the firm classified previously, referring to, respectively, heavy users and those who listen to music, watch video and play games), apps are still needed.

5) Mobile Marketing Spend will Surpass $1 Billion

Marketer will begin allocating dedicated resources to mobile in 2011. In the U.S., Forrester forecasts that marketing spend on mobile display ads and search will surpass $1 billion in 2011. Marketers will find quantifiable ROI on mobile for generating real leads, driving foot traffic, and selling products and services.

6) Mobile Will Increasingly Prompt Users to Interact with Their Environment

In 2011, NFC will begin to matter. The market will move away from the trial stage in regions where there is NFC infrastructure in place, but barriers will still need to be removed for the technology to really take off. These include consumer demand, education and business model issues. Other technologies like QR codes (a type of barcode) and augmented reality will prompt users to hold up their phones to interact with the world around them. These initiatives, however, will remain nice, but will help raise awareness of the new forms of interaction provided by mobile.

7) The Attention to 4G will Vastly Outweigh the Impact of 4G Networks

More operators will launch 4G networks in 2011 to a lot of buzz, but Forrester says to ignore the hype. "4G will have as little impact as 3G had when it launched in Europe and the U.S. in 203." It took nearly 7 years for half of mobile subscribers in those regions to have 3G capable phones, says the firm. Expect similar trends for 4G.

8) Companies will Invest First in Convenient Services for Consumers

Forrester says that mobile product and service professionals, particularly in the travel industry, will invest first to keep their most lucrative customers happy. And in the hierarchy of benefits that mobile offers - revenue generation, cost savings and convenience - convenience will reign during 2011.

9) Casual Gaming Will Continue to Boom

Smartphones have become powerful gaming devices for the mass market, and this trend will continue in 2011. In the premium mobile space, new business models based on subscriptions, microtransactions and in-app billing will expand from the games category into others, like music and news.

10) "Mobile" Will Mean More than Mobile Phones

Consumer adoption of tablets, eReaders, portable media devices and other mobile products has grown in 2010 and this will continue in 2011. Apps and services will need to work across devices and consumers will want ubiquitous access to content and services.  This will force service providers to sync content via the cloud to maintain a consistent experience across platforms.

VODA lagging behind in 3G...

Hoards of people are waiting for 3G – and a significant majority are waiting for affordable 3G(Telcos, please take note). But that’s not the point here. Only 2 private operators have rolled out 3G services as of now – and even that has had regulatory hiccups – for now though there is a status quo until the end of July. But there has been positive movement too in the last few weeks. Telecom service providers are busy chalking out deals with each other to ensure Pan India 3G availability on their respective networks. Recently Aircel too announced that it will be rolling out 3G services in the next 45-60 days.

Airtel, which was supposed to have launched 3G services by the end of the year, but had to postpone it has now hinted that 3G could be on its way soon. Reported by ET, Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told the Press Trust of India that the company would be making an announcement about the commercial launch of 3G in the ‘next six to seven days’. Airtel won spectrum in 13 of the 22 telecom circles and is reportedly partnering with Idea and Vodafone to ensure a national footprint. Between the 3 of them they cover all circles except Orissa.

Postscript : Looks like the reports were true, Airtel has indeed launched 3G in southern Karnataka today and will complete the rollout by the end of March. The Airtel website does not have tariff’s up yet – except for some mobile specific plans. FoneArena is reporting some tariffs which are, well, pretty steep! Understandably people aren’t very thrilled – twitter search.

While DoCoMo, the first out of the blocks with 3G services has announced that parts of North Karnataka too will now have 3G coverage (Hubli, Dharward and Belgaum to be precise). There is plenty of buzz on twitter as far as 3G is concerned. From tweets claiming that all 3G signals are live in Pune to ones that say Airtel’s press conference in Bangalore today will see the launch of 3G services in Bangalore. Several people are also claiming to have received text messages from service providers about the arrival of 3G services. I got one from Vodafone on 19th January. Still no official announcement though. There are also reports that Idea is testing its 3G signal in Kerala. It had said, back in December, that it would begin its 3G rollout with Gujarat in early 2011.

As I said, things are certainly moving in the right direction for now. Hopefully all remaining Telecom companies will stick to their roll out schedules and India will have complete 3G coverage. I wouldn’t take anything for granted just yet though – tariffs and regulation could yet prove to be party poopers – at least initially.

Have you heard any more 3G reports/rumours? Let us know!

Switching to Operators Not So Easy despite MNP buZZ

Mobile number portability got off to a rocky start as customers complained they were unable to swap service providers and telcos accused rivals unfairly hanging on to top clients. Customers queuing up to switch operators without a change in cellphone numbers were told “servers were down” or there were technical glitches that prevented quick action on their request to desert their existing service provider.

Airtel customer SK Ghosh has been sending a text message for two days only to get a terse reply: “invalid entry”. ET spoke to a cross-section of customers across the country. All of them faced similar hurdles. The response from another service provider for subscriber in West Bengal was “no default configured”.

Vodafone Essar , which runs a countrywide network, said customer helplines were awash with complaints from angry subscribers of rival networks complaining their requests to make a switch fell on deaf ears. The telco plans to take up the issue with sector regulator Trai.

“We are getting complaints from customers who want to port in to us that they are not getting the unique porting codes from their existing service providers or there is a delay in the process. It is not appropriate to name any specific operator,” Samaresh Parida, Vodafone Essar’s director (strategy) told ET.

Reliance Communications , the country’s second largest telco by customers, also said its rivals were not processing requests to switch to the Anil-Ambani promoted company.

“I can confirm that RCom helplines have received umpteen complaints from (customers of rival networks) that their SMS requests were not being accepted by their present service providers. Most complaints emanated from Vodafone, Airtel and some Idea Cellular customers in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka who been wanting to port into RCom,” said RCom’s president (marketing) for wireless business, Mahesh Prasad.

The CEO of Bharti Airtel , India’s largest telco by both customers and revenues, Sanjay Kapoor, said his company was not blocking customers’ request to switch to rivals. “There may be some technical issues, but we should not jump to conclusions, and allow the system to stablise,” he said.

Kapoor said Airtel would gain the most by the introduction of MNP. “Our revenue market share is far higher than our customer market share, an indicator of the quality of our subscribers. We have a credible track record for services and an enviable reach in terms of our networks and MNP will therefore enable us to get more customers,” he said.

He said eventually, a customer would be able to make a switch. “If a subscriber does not get a response, he will resend the SMS. It is not possible for any telco to block the process,” Kapoor added. According to Rajan Mathews, director general of The Cellular Operators Association of India, the body representing all GSM telcos, technical glitches were bound to crop up in the first weeks especially considering that scale of the project.

“No country with over 700 million cellphone customers and 14 operators has ever attempted such a project. Given the complexity involved, I can categorically state that there is no malicious intent by any operator to stall or delay porting requests. Besides, any telco that has complaints can always approach regulator Trai,” he added. source

Affordable Financial Services on Mobile

India's telecom regulator Trai wants to fix tariffs for banking and other financial services on mobile phones to ensure that this facility is affordable to the masses.

At present, market forces determine telecom tariffs in India, with very little intervention from Trai or the government. The regulator is of the opinion that 'the proposed framework for delivery of basic financial services is intended to promote financial inclusion, including transfer of funds under various government schemes and programmes targeted to poor people', which calls for regulating tariffs for such services.

"Tariff regulation would be crucial if adoption of mobile banking is to be encouraged especially among the unbanked segments of the population. In such a situation cost effectiveness of delivery of basic financial services through mobile phones becomes an important consideration. Every effort should be made to keep the provisioning of the services affordable for the target beneficiaries," the regulator said when launching a consultation process to gauge the industry's reaction to this proposal.

The consultation process will also enable the regulator to fianlise its recommendations on other policy issues that are vital for framing guidelines for mobile banking services.

Trai has also sought the industry's response on a recent government panel report, which had said that customers wanting to operate their accounts through cellphones must shell out a 2% commission to the bank.

The inter-ministerial group constituted to frame rules for banking services on cellular handsets had also said that that banks in turn must pay the telco a minimum of 2.25 per transaction or 1.4% of the total amount, while adding that the commission be gradually reduced to 1% over the 5 years. If the telco were to set up mini ATMs, and if the transactions were to happen through these, then banks must pay the mobile phone company a minimum of 3 per transaction or 2.25% of the amount, the report had added.

Earlier this month, the country's two leading cellphone companies announced separate tie-ups with the largest banks here to provide financial services on handsets. Bharti Airtel , the country's largest mobile phone company by both customers and revenues had formed a 49:51 joint venture with State Bank of India to provide mobile-banking and other financial services, and Vodafone Essar Ltd , majority owned by UK's Vodafone, unveiled a similar deal, by entering into a JV with ICICI Bank , India's largest private sector bank.

Other mobile service providers are also slated to announce similar tie-ups with banks over the next couple of months.

SBI-Airtel is targeting to get two million such accounts on a yearly basis which would be easily scaled up to five million accounts a year owing to the bank's wide reach and Airtel's 1.5 million touch points, Bhatt added. Similarly, ICICI said it plans to take use the strength of Vodafone, which also has over 1.5 million retail points, for acquiring customers and servicing them.

India has over 700 million mobile connections with a penetration of more than 60%. In comparison, a significant majority of the country's population does not have access to banking services. Latest estimates by the Central Bank say that only 50,000 of the 600,000 villages in the country have access to finance.
source

229% growth in Q4 for Spice i2i

Asian mobile internet and VAS company Spice i2i reported a turnover of USD 97.4 million for the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2010, up 229 percent from USD 29.6 million in the year-ago period. The increase is attributed to the mobility business of the group. The mobility business contributed USD 74.7 Million to the turnover in this quarter. Inline with increases in revenue, direct service fees incurred and costs of goods sold had also increased by USD 62.9 million to USD 80.6 million in Q4. These increases were not in proportion to the increases in revenue, due to change in sales mix (revenue generated from the mobile handsets business has comparatively higher cost of goods sold and lower margin as compared to the voice business). Similarly, personnel costs, infrastructure costs, depreciation of property, plant and equipment, amortisation of intangible assets and finance costs had increased in comparison to last year's same period, resulting from the acquisition of the subsidiaries, Spice BPO Services, Bharat IT Services, and Newtel and incorporation of subsidiary Spice-CSL. Profit, dropped 57 percent to USD 1.8 million versus USD 4.1 million a year earlier. Spice i2i also announced it aims to raise SGD 151 million in a rights issue. Part of the rights proceeds are intended to be used for the proposed acquisition of the remaining 35 percent of the shares in the issued share capital of the Spice-CSL joint venture to make Spice-CSL a 100 percent owned subsidiary. The company also plans to acquire other companies comprised in the CSL Group that are involved in the ecosystem related to mobile handsets and mobile internet like VAS, retail, after sales services etc. The rights issue is underwritten in full by DBS Bank

216 crore to GOVT from penalties on TELCOS

The government has collected nearly Rs 216 crore in penalties from new telecom service providers for not rolling out their networks within the stipulated timeframe after getting licence and spectrum.

"We have received Rs 215.6 crore as liquidated damages from the new service providers for missing out roll-out obligations out of total Rs 342.6 crore demand till January 21," Telecom Secretary R Chandrasehkar told PTI.

The DoT had issued 119 notices to new telecom operators for missing their network roll-out obligations last month and imposed hefty penalties on them.

He further added, "The companies who had moved to TDSAT are also expected to pay this (liquidated damages) as soon as possible."

As per sectoral regulator Trai's guidelines, in case showcause notices were issued for cancellation of licences, the operators would be given 60 days time to respond to the notices before a final decision is taken.

In the case of penalties imposed for for missing roll-out obligations, the operators were supposed to make payment within 15 days of the notice.

As per the conditions of the licences, the licencees were required to roll-out their services in 90 per cent of service areas in metros and 10 per cent in district headquarters within 12 months (52 weeks) from the date of award of licences.

Earlier, telecom tribunal TDSAT had asked Uninor and Videocon Telecom to pay a part of the penalty imposed on them for missing their roll-out obligations.

TDSAT's interim order followed a plea from Videocon challenging the demand notice issued by the DoT, which sought liquidated damages (LD) over the telecom firm's failure to roll out services within the stipulated period of one year after the grant of a licence.

The DoT had issued the notices to Videocon on January 1, demanding LD for four circles.

In a similar case, TDSAT had directed Uninor to pay 60 per cent of the penalty amount demanded by the DoT over the service provider's failure to roll-out services in 18 circles.

As per the conditions of the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL), the telcos are required to roll-out their networks within one year from the date of allocation of spectrum.

According to the agreement, in case new licencees fail to roll-out services within the stipulated period, the DoT is entitled to impose LD on the operators, or even cancel their licences.source

MNP kicks off a lot of BUZZ created !!!, but few shifting yet

 After waiting for at least five years, most Indians finally got the ability to change their mobile service provider without changing their number on Thursday, but very few actually did, said industry watchers.
But that didn’t stop the phone companies from trying to generate as much buzz as they could, both online and offline.


 After waiting for at least five years, most Indians finally got the ability to change their mobile service provider without changing their number on Thursday, but very few actually did, said industry watchers.
But that didn’t stop the phone companies from trying to generate as much buzz as they could, both online and offline.
Mobile number portability (MNP) was the talk of the Indian microblogosphere, as the move came into effect. #MNP topped the list of trending topics for India, while “mobile number portability” was third.


A lot of the tweets were generated by the telcos themselves. Bharti Airtel Ltd (@airtel_in) promised potential crossover customers “a nice surprise ;-)” and later quoted a Hindustan Times MNP survey as saying that one in three consumers would switch to it. Meanwhile, Tata DoCoMo (@tatadocomo) cited a survey by @indiasurveys (which conducts surveys on Indian news issues on Twitter) that said 50% of all Airtel’s consumers would switch to its services.
Tata DoCoMo, which had the most aggressive Twitter campaign by far, also initiated a hashtag campaign named #switch2TataDoCoMo, which it inserted into all its tweets on MNP. A typical tweet by the company read, “f ur lookin to switch then ensure its to a #3G ready network, who believes in cool offers..aka us ;-) #Switch2TataDoCoMo #MNP”. The firm also adopted an informal tone in its replies to individual tweeters, often referring to them as “buddy” or “pal”.
Idea Cellular Ltd, which ran an aggressive television campaign asking people to “Get Idea”, was also active on Twitter, though not in quite the same manner as Tata DoCoMo.
Vodafone Essar Ltd (@vodafone_in) also had a restrained approach, although the company had been running a campaign to get consumers to switch to its services over the last few days. There was barely any mention of #MNP, with the company choosing to respond to customer queries and complaints instead.
Meanwhile, consumers used the opportunity to either praise or hit out at their mobile phone operators, with many of them announcing who they were planning to switch to and why. One user @krrish_vn said, “Every service provider hav their own probs..Lets see who take advantage...and who loses....Anyway Bsnl will lose a valble customer.nd its me”. There was also a lot of hilarity over a text message sent by Airtel to its consumers, which thanked customers for being on “India’s network” and the usual number of quips, slogans and witticisms. The top tweet for #MNP by @krishashok read “Can I get Aircel’s coverage, Airtel’s call centre, Vodafone’s EDGE and BSNL’s bill?”
The MNP wars were not restricted just to Twitter. Vodafone, Tata DoCoMo and Airtel have all bought advertising space on Google that appears on the result pages on searches for either MNP or mobile number portability.
Telcos went into overdrive offline as well. Many have rolled out massive advertising campaigns, while some of the operators have launched aggressive below-the-line campaigns as well.
“Many of the operators have been pushing their existing discounts along with promises of free gifts among other things,” said a telecom expert with one of the larger consulting firms. “Initially, many of them are launching mass-market schemes to attract the initial movers en masse. Later, the operators will launch specific, targeted schemes,” added this person, who did not want to be identified.
One winner that seems to be emerging from the battle is the distributor.
“The operators have started offering the distributors some Rs150-200 for every ported subscriber, while they are also looking at trade schemes,” a Mumbai analyst said. Trade schemes refer to gifts and rewards for distributors who push certain products to consumers. “One operator is offering subscribers a free watch to port,” he added, asking not to be identified.
There may be some impact on the prepaid market thanks to the distributor push, but that won’t last for long, experts said.
In any case, there didn’t seem to be much of an impact on the consumer base on the first day.
“Most subscribers that are looking to port have decided to wait a few days. There is a novelty aspect to the whole thing and many who have decided to move are weighing their options,” said a senior executive with one of the larger telecom firms, who did not want to be identified.
“There is a general inquisitiveness among the consumers and many are looking into the various offers. But the operators have gone into overdrive with their marketing schemes,” a second Mumbai-based analyst said, speaking on condition of anonymity.source