Comments on: The Indian Wireless Carrier War - What it means for Indian Mobile Startups:

By: hussain

hussain — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:22:31 +0000

I think a reality dose is needed. VAS is doing well in India and is not all that bleak as it sounds. It may not be a significant number compared to the voice revenue but all operators are focusing on increasing VAS revenues experimenting with MMS, GPRS applications, etc. The key they are trying to crack is the mass consumer application which is not more than 6-12 months away.

By: Rajiv

Rajiv — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:02:40 +0000

That would mean a 3 years of gestation period for the mobile VAS startups. Not a bad deal i would say. It takes that much time to convince the operators anyways! The mobile VAS startups being formed right now would be at the right place at the right time then. Explains why the mobile VAS segment is so hot nowadays for the VC’s.

By: Ravi Mohan

Ravi Mohan — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 07:31:40 +0000

Nice post!
I didn’t know you work in TW these days. Your ideas exactly match the conclusion I and my friends reached when evaluating ideas for startup. Great minds think alike? ;-)

By: kiran

kiran — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:10:58 +0000

Rajiv,

Indian carriers are a strange bunch - on the one hand they have this total disregard for VAS (today) and on the other they are leading the way in experimenting with new technologies in GSM (see the GSM conference highlights recently) - the latest Windows Mobile + HP offering with inbuilt GPS capabilities (for Indian Roads) is an example - however, I do feel that their marketing and distribution channels will take to VAS only after the next 2-3 years.

Until then I think we will see some carriers gain an upper hand while some of the smaller players will get acquired leaving only 2-4 top carriers that will then focus on increasing ARPU per customer.

By: Rajiv

Rajiv — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:24:44 +0000

Good point! Right now VAS is not the foucs and the content has to be really compelling for the operator to buy it. But on the other side ARPU is on the decline and there will be a time when they will have to look at VAS services to keep up the double digit growth.

When do you think will Indian market reach that phase? 2 years, 5 years, 10 years!!!

By: Sidhartha Bezbora

Sidhartha Bezbora — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 10:32:18 +0000

The operators in India are on a high at the moment with subscriptions clocking more then 1million a month. Like the internet boom in in 1998.. its now the mobile boom which is going to create lot of start up companies and as a result will create some giants like Yahoo ! Google ! in the mobile space.

The opportunity in India is huge and myself being from the Telecom industry with experience in starting my own VAS Start up company. There is a huge opportunity in VAS in India and once 3G is launched in 2008 there will be even more opportunity. Right now the major VAS related content is mainly SMS based, Digital Music like Ringtones, Ringback tones, Wallpapers, TV based interactive content on SMS.