Delhi organized the second Mobile Monday ‘unconference’ on 20^th 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)

The Keynote presentation, M-generation and business opportunities delivered by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD One97 Communications touched upon all key business opportunity areas in mobile domain.

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)

Other presentations were
# Gagan Chadha, from Value First (Audio)
# Mandeep Singh of mChek (Audio)
# Varun Khurana Co-Founder and CEO, Wirkle: Mobile ecosystem and usability  (Audio)
# Mayank Kumar – Mobile Development Environments (Audio)
# Shantanu Chauhan of ValueFirst: Enterprise level security for mobile communications (Audio)
# Amit Khemka, Founding member OnYoMo (Audio)
# Deepak Kapoor, Editor, BPO News: Invading privacy through SMS Telegold (Audio)
# Navjot S Pawera of Opera (Audio)
# Nikhil Pahwa, ContentSutra: Questions & Answers (Audio 1 & Audio 2)

Photo link to MoMo Delhi, 20^th Jan 2007

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) 

 

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) 

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: 

• Video chatting on mobile
• Video blogging from mobile 
• 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.    

 

 

Verizon to Allow Ads on Its Mobile Phones

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.

For the entire story, click here

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] 

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.”

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.”

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.

HARSIMRAN SINGH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, JANUARY 07, 2007 12:00:00 AM]

NEW DELHI: Imagine waking up to a day when the short codes for your favourite TV soap, news programme, TV contest, cricket score or for that matter KBC II change. Better get used to the new code or end up not getting your stock quote or that important flight schedule.

The government’s move to prefix five to all short codes and make them into five digits by May 2007, has understandably got the mobile content and applications industry up in arms.

Companies claim the move threatens disruption of their businesses and along with it closure of some SMS-based enquiry services like those of Indian Railways, Indian Airlines, ICICI and HDFC, which run between six and eight digit short codes. Besides it could also affect people who follow opinion polls of media firms, contests, cricket scores and stock quotes.

Short codes are SMS addresses like 8888 of Indiatimes, 6767-1407 for Indian Airlines. People use these numbers to submit their opinion, make requests and take part in a contest. These numbers were innovated by the mobile value added services industry around the year 2000.

The industry’s reaction comes in the wake of a TRAI notification on Thursday which fixed a deadline of May 31, 2007 for compliance with a DoT order on the issue in December.

Experts claim, about 80-100 small and mid-sized companies like ACL Wireless, CellNext, One97, Onyx, Active Media, Wi-Fi, Mobile2Win, Indiatimes 8888, Rediff, Yahoo will be affected along with all TV channlels and newspapers which run SMS based services and contests. Most of these companies have revenues in the range of Rs 20-40 cr annually and constitute an im-portant part of Rs 3000 crore mobile VAS industry.

The worst affected will be companies like ACL Wireless which run short codes like 6767 and 6677 followed by two to four digit suffixes for Indian Railways, HDFC, ICICI, DD and Indian Airlines. “The policy has gaping holes. There is no clarity over the issue of trailing numbers and suffix support.

It’s silent on the usage of ‘*’ or ‘#’ in short codes,’’ says Atanu Mandal, president, ACL Wireless. The government’s policy would mean a deathknell for ACL as it can have only ‘56767’ short code which completes the five digit allowed number.

“The government has not given any formula for converting eight digit codes into five digit ones. Chat and instant messaging services will also be affected as only 99,999 people would be allotted the random short codes at any given instant,” says Ajay Vaishnavi, COO of Cellnext. The reference is to the relatively new facility of sending SMS messages from instant messaging services like those of Yahoo and Rediff.

DoT’s policy would mean re-allotting, re-marketing the short codes which will require huge money.”We have invested a lot in branding of 8888. The government’s move will mean an entire re-branding exercise. But companies which have codes running into more than four digits will face huge problems. The government should take a re-look into this,” says an Indiatimes spokesperson.

But clearly, the government is not bothered. “Companies adopted and branded short codes without asking us. A discipline is needed to keep the National Numbering Plan sacrosanct and if the companies have to incur costs to revamp and re-market their short codes, so be it. It’s like telling MCD not to demolish the property you have constructed in an unauthorised area,” says a top government official.

Interestingly, the 124-page National Numbering Plan published in April 2003 doesn’t contain a single word on short-codes despite the fact that services like 8888 were in vogue that time.

“De-limiting the suffixes would make them clash with landline numbers of HFCL and Shyam Telecom in Punjab. These players who paid huge licence fees unlike mobile VAS players, were alloted level-5 as no other level was available at that time,” responds a government official.

In all this brouhaha, there is a lone voice of One97 which supports DoT’s move. “Rather than using suffixes people can use prefixes like Bank-name loan 5-XXXX. Apart from two companies (which built their business around suffixes) and their clients, no one will be affected drastically,” says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD of One97.

Trai has fixed a deadline of May 31 to comply. Mobile operators are shooting letters daily to short code service providers to change their codes who seem to be in a fix. Clearly, there is a war of words on between the government and industry and the common man could become the scape goat as disruption of critical bank, rail, airline and SMS enquiry services may turn out to be disastrous.

Harsimran.Julka@timesgroup.com