How can VAS reach beyond infotainment and serve in increasing usage and ARPU?
I agree that all the while focus of VAS has been on infotainment only. There is nothing wrong with this as the early adoption is seen in this space only. We have to look beyond infotainment. We are working on all such areas, where it can make difference to the customer’s life-whether it is about making the customer more productive, or about living healthier life, or enhancing social status. Some of the emerging areas that we are bullish on are mobile healthcare, mobile education, personal productivity, mobile transactions, and mobile governance. What are the latest trends that are dominating the VAS market? Location based services and mobile advertising are in vogue. Potentially every service can be location enabled, and be supported with mobile advertising, even something like news. Rich media and local content will be another trend, more so with the advent of 3G. And one of the most important trends I observe is the ‘touch-wave’ pioneered by iPhone. Every device and application is ad
