‘mCommerce, mHealthcare and mGovernance are our focus areas’

On VAS growth and evolution:

Our growth till date has been in a traditional way using SMS, WAP and IVR as the main service delivery mechanisms. In the last one year, we have felt the need of focusing on citizen-centric applications to fill the gap in the pain areas like transportation, healthcare and education. This is where our entire development efforts are going and we have in last months launched a few new initiatives in the application domain.

On areas of innovation:

mCommerce, mHealthcare and mGovernance are the three key areas where our entire development efforts are going and we are trying to build mCommerce as a common payment solution for our other two initiatives for the rural and semi urban markets. We feel that mHealth is going to revolutionise the market. Health kiosks which enable patient monitoring will bring doctors closer to the patients.

On transformation from VAS to apps:

VAS as an industry for transitional businesses is dying and it is high time companies realise that they need to create new ideas wherein they move away from traditional business to more customer-centric businesses. Application is an obvious choice, but applications need to be backed by good solutions which fill the gaps or pain points of day to day life. Companies experienced in VAS have moved towards the solution approach.

With the RBI recently approving licenses for 11 out of 41 applicants for setting up payment banks and with leading telcos being among the finalists, the opportunities to develop the segment further would be there for the stakeholders.

into strategic development of new VAS offerings.

Onmobile, a stock-market favorite in its heydays, which had turned to markets like Africa and Latin America for new businesses as revenue in home market shrank in the aftermath of regulatory changes, has managed to stay put against odds. On one hand, it has focused on cutting down expenses by rationalizing headcount while on the other hand, it has worked to identify new products or redefine some existing ones. Notably, it launched its high-definition identity RBT service suited for 4G LTE voice networks. While the service would likely see immediate deployments in European markets, it would also have a near-term opportunity in the India market, which is poised to see large-scale 4G LTE rollouts this year itself.

IMI Mobile too has increased focus on markets outside of India in its efforts to achieve growth.

Another erstwhile VAS player Mauj, which had moved into the apps space through its stores Appystore, Gamesbond and Mobango, is reportedly planning to raise $30-50 million in funds for further expansion. The company already counts Sequoia Capital, Westbridge Capital and Intel Capital among its investors.

The road ahead

One reason why the VAS opportunities have declined in the wake of regulatory challenges is that the legacy 2G and 3G networks in India have mostly been capable of delivering traditional VAS only. That, however, could potentially change with the proliferation of 4G LTE services.

4G LTE, with VoLTE, has the inherent ability to enable a whole new range of VAS such as HD voice, HD video calling, mobile TV and various other rich media services. However, VoLTE could also make it possible for telcos to take direct control over delivery of these new genres of VAS, rather than being dependent on third-party platforms for the delivery of services.

As such, the pure-play VAS platform providers would need to devise further value adds, whether in terms of quality or process, to stay relevant in the new contexts. While developments like HD RBT and CRBT could indeed be steps in the right direction, those may not be enough. Providers should be able to discover, curate and promote new features that are compelling enough and create stickiness.

For example, creating interfaces that are apps like and intuitively simple to use, could be worth the effort. In order to stay tuned with today’s users’ dynamically changing needs and expectations, providers should be conducting studies on an ongoing basis to gather the necessary foresights.

VoLTE could make it possible for telcos to take direct control over delivery of these new genres of VAS