Location Based Services: Status in India Tuesday, Jul 28 2009

In India, over 400 million mobile subscribers, with ~10millions new mobile subscribers every month is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world but one of the last great frontiers for location – based services. Ever since mobiles have moved into the affordable bracket, there has been increasing demand for mobile VAS such as SMS based services, social networking, CRBT, downloadable contents, mobile gaming, mCommerce , mobile search etc. But what about LBS ?

What is LBS?

Location Based Services, based on GPS (Global Positioning System) technology is an informative service which provides location specific data to mobile users when moving from one place to another.It makes use of mobile application which helps mobile users track the right address.

Services offered

Many service providers such as BSNL, MTNL, Bharti Airtel in India have been providing location based services for few years now. Some of the services supported by LBS are:

• Friend Finder – alerts subscribers when one of their friends in their buddy list is in close proximity to their location or vice versa
• Mobile Yellow Pages – allows subscribers to get the location of the closest service point of their interest
• City Sightseeing – provides subscribers with the location information of a place of interest – restaurant, museum, park etc
• Maps and direction- provides navigation to find the right address
• Locating place – malls, hospitals, movie halls, ATMs, banks etc
• Receiving alerts – location based advertisments, about sale, traffic jam, road construction, road block etc
• Resource tracking – fleet management , courier tracking etc
• Chatting  – Location based chatting service to be in touch/meet people around that location

Even though there is good potential for LBS providers to tap the Indian market due to large number of mobile subscribers, getting mobile users to explore this service still remains challenging. Based on a survey conducted to find out the most desired Value added services in urban India, LBS (maps usage) is ranked low. This is because of low GPRS subcription, personal safety, lack of reliable and accurate data available, ever changing infrastructure due to road constructions, blocks, multiple names addressed for same location etc . LBS providers in India are hence currently lagging in the race in comparision to other mobile VAS providers.

Take a look what others in this industry have to say about status of LBS in India.  http://www.livemint.com/articles/2009/07/21220956/Locationbased-services-yet-to.html

What are your thoughts?

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SMS usage in Urban India – Statistics based on demographics and geographics Monday, Jul 13 2009

SMS is an acronym standing for Short Message Service and more commonly referred to as text messaging is a method by which messages of 160 charecters can be sent to a mobile phone via another mobile phone or via a computer connected to the Internet. A Value Added Service which has become very popular among mobile users not just for peer to peer messaging but also for A2P (application to peer) including services such as a marketing tool, advertising, promotional offers , entertainment services and P2A (peer to application) including services such as polls and contests.

Here is a detailed SMS report on its usage pattern in urban India

Mobile Market Report – SMS Usage in Urban

http://www.pluggd.in/india-mobile-market-report-sms-as-a-vas-service-297/

SMS in India – How, what and why?

http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/07/07/full-report-sms-vas-usage-india/

Full report can be downloaded from:

http://www.vitalanalytics.in/web/force_download.php?fname=images/downloads/SMS-Report.pdf

Do let us know your thoughts?

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SMS based VAS Tuesday, Jul 7 2009

SMS based Value Added Services

SMS has celebrated its 15th Birthday recently. Ever since its existance, there has been a remarkable increase in usage of SMS services in India today.  56 Million urban Indians used a VAS related SMS subscription service in March/April 2009.

Service provider wise SMS usage share

SMS is a basic VAS and is provided by all service providers in India. Reliance Mobile CDMA accounts for a quarter of all subscribers to VAS SMS subscription service, followed by Bharti Airtel (18%) and Vodafone (14%).

SMS Usage versus service providers in India

Popular SMS service

Some of the SMS services offered are polls, contests, entertainment (ringtone download, jokes, games download ), activation of non-sms services, stock updates, health care tips, fashion tips etc. However, receiving Jokes via SMS is the most popular SMS subscription with 1 in 2 subscribers subscribing followed by Astrology.

Popular SMS services in urban India

I like SMS services as its simple to use, user friendly and low priced. How often do you use SMS services and which services do you use most?

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Choosing the right Service provider in India Thursday, Jul 2 2009

Indian mobile subscriber base has grown immensely ever since mobile technologies (Cell phones, Mobile VAS) came into existance. There are various service providers offering mobile services to mobile users in India today. Pricing, customer service, types of service offerings and network connectivity plays a huge role when it comes to choosing the service provider (cellular operator). Mobile users constantly look for reliable service providers. Based on data gathered in May 2009 for April/March 2009 urban Indian mobile users, it is noticed that state run mobile service providers are perceived to be offering most reasonably priced services!

22% of BSNL and 16% of MTNL subscribers feel they (service provider) offer a more reasonably priced services compared to overall subscribers. On the product diversity side, Aircel and Vodafone do a great job as 11% of both service providers’ subscribers appear to agree than overall subscribers. On customer service front, MTNL, Loop mobile and Vodafone Essar are ahead of the curve with subscribers to each provider agreeing 16% more than overall that they offer reliable customer service.

Comparison of Service providers in India

Are you happy with your existing service provider ? What is it that makes you stick to your exisiting service provider?

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