Delhi organized the second Mobile Monday ‘unconference’ on 20th January, 07. The event was kick-started by the introduction where each participant, along with their name, described the shortcomings of their mobile device and their aspirations about its applications. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola were the clear favourites in terms of handsets used. Majority of those present were unhappy with the current speed of GPRS and wished for faster connectivity, easier browsing ability, longer battery life. Most of the issues were related to older mobile models and could be sorted out once upgraded to newer models. (Audio)
He reminded the current M-generation of a world where one had to physically travel to the destination to get any work done. For banking, one had to travel to a bank, to purchase anything, one had to go to shops, to research one had to go to a library and likewise for other things. It was a world devoid of internet and email.
Then followed a time when one could get most of the work done over internet. Most of the things that one wanted to do in real life, could be done on net. Yet one needed to sit on a computer, log on to net to accomplish any task – they were still stuck to their seat. Mobiles solved this problem. Browsing, messaging, emailing, purchasing, information search can be conducted on mobiles. Compared to less than two million broadband connection in India, a potential client base of 140 million exists which is connected wirelessly.
Emphasizing the need to make sure that every application was mobile savvy to tap this market, he delved in every possible business opportunity in mobile domain. This opened up a world of opportunity for every audience member and he was bombarded with enthusiastic questions from every corner of the room. (Audio presentation)
The day was rounded off by an informal party at Geoferry’s thrown by Vijay of One97. While presentations, questions and answers triggered ideas, MoMos (the eating variety) as munchies torched the taste buds and proved to be a great hit with everyone. Thank you Nikhil for a brilliant idea!
MARIUS project (Mobile Autonomous Reactive Information System for Urgency Situation) is being financed by the European Union. This project is based on a technology which will enable the rescue teams to send SMS even in areas where the mobile network is not functioning. It will facilitate dispersion of information during rescue operations and possibility of saving far more lives. (Source)Â
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MARIUS is a project which aims to develop a pre-operational autonomous Command Post which can be deployed very quickly to manage every type of crisis. In a country like India, with many inaccessible, unconnected areas, such a technology will go a long way to provide relief and save lives. And now that since large scale effort is being made to provide mobile connectivity in local languages, we hope that such technologies will be accessed by National Disaster Management Teams and deployed in regional languages.
World cup being not so far away, cricket rules the mind of most Indians – the coverage especially. None of the cricket fans care to miss even a moment of the game. It is not so impossible to understand why they wish 3G/WiMax was a reality now which would give them access to down live video streaming of matches on their mobile. (Business Line article)Â
If the roll out of 3G/WiMax occurs in 2007 and all goes well, by 2008 we can look forward to applications which indulges our need to communicate and express our opinion . They could be:Â
Video chatting on mobile
Video blogging from mobileÂ
Video enabled interactive TV
Disaster management
Medical help
But, then like all good intentions, this too is dependent on actual implementation. Service cost, coverage area, ease of use, handset cost – all this will determine the popularity of these applications. I for one, am looking forward to using these services for relief management and making good education easily available to people sitting in remote corners of the country.  Â
Verizon Wireless, among the nation’s most widely advertised brands, is poised to become the advertising medium itself.
Beginning early next year, Verizon Wireless will allow placement of banner advertisements on news, weather, sports and other Internet sites that users visit and display on their mobile phones, company executives said.
The development is a substantive and symbolic advance toward the widespread appearance of marketing messages on the smallest of screens. Advertisers have been increasing the amount they spent on mobile marketing, despite lingering questions about the effectiveness of ads on portable phones.
Verizon officials said their initial foray would be a cautious one — they will limit where ads can appear, and exclude certain kinds of video clips — and thus may invite greater demand to place ads then they can accommodate.
The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com > News By Industry > Telecom
HARSIMRAN SINGH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2007 02:04:43 AM]Â
NEW DELHI: The Rs 2,800-crore mobile value added services (VAS) industry is complaining of high-handedness from operators on billing issues and revenue sharing.
According to VAS providers, the number of downloads (of games, themes, wallpapers, movie clips etc.) reported by operators every month are at least 20-30% lower than what they (VAS providers) claim. Operators, on the other hand disagree with these accusations.
Says Rajiv Hiranandani of Mobile2Win.com, “In a recent case, the VAS provider presented a bill to the operator who approved of only 30% downloads. The VAS provider was left astonished and had to set his revenues back by several lakhs in his account books.â€
Says Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 (a VAS player), “VAS providers should be suitably rewarded. We should not be irrational while sharing revenues or billing reconciliation.†There are two ways to record the number of downloads, says Saket Agrawal, COO, Cellebrum.
“In the first, the VAS provider gives the services directly to the operator. In the second, the download happens via an intermediate platform which we and some other companies provide. The second way is safer as it records the number of downloads, people logged in and reduces chances of underplay of figures. But no system is 100% fool proof.â€
Sometimes the difference in reporting shoots up to 40-50%, say VAS providers. Mobile operators however disagree. “Often a failed attempt is also recorded in the system. Data downloads require longer time. Many consumers cancel the download mid-way. Due to network problems the download often doesn’t complete. But these are also counted as successful attempts by the system which leads to billing anomaly,†says an operator.
“It’s not a one time problem. Every month when the chqeue arrives, it shows a marked 10-20% difference in what we expect and what the operator has billed. We do expect a plus/minus 5% in billing, but often it varies beyond that,†says another VAS player.
Most downloads happen in the realm of wallpapers, songs, trutones, themes, Java Games etc. Wallpapers and themes take longer download times. At 2G speeds the downloads are slower and 3G has not been implemented as yet. The information system calculates the minutes of download and calculates the revenue share. Some experts however say that MIS systems are at fault.
“There is no way to check the balance of pre-paid subscribers before a download. The download starts even before checking the balance and many do get downloaded resulting in a negative balance for the customer. This creates a problem as though the VAS provider will charge the download, the operator’s software may not show the download to have happened,†adds Agrawal.
Higher revenue share tilted in favour of operators is also creating problems. “The revenue share was 70:30 earlier, tilted in favour of mobile operator. Now, it’s falling to 80:20,†says Sharma. Due to their size operators are able to turn the terms and conditions in their favour, claim VAS players.
They also claim that operators show their muscle power by charging almost 70:30 revenue share in India as opposed to 30:70 in Europe, China. There are lots of smaller VAS players in the country who are willing to provide services at cheaper rates, which also leads to the problem. Operators however lament that since network expansion requires significant capex and opex, this kind of revenue sharing is required.
