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As an application service provider, Netxcell is ready with its latest offerings to tap into the growing demand for value added services from consumers. It is creating platforms and capabilities to the telecom operators, and enterprise clients to integrate innovative services into their networks. Dr Debasis Chatterji, CEO, Netxcell Limited talks to Priyanka Bhattacharya about the market opportunity for value added services in the Indian telecom market, and what the company is doing about it.

ITVN: How is the market for mobile value added services evolving in India?

DC: VAS market in India is crowded with a lot of players claiming to be offering similar services. While the fact remains that most of these players have not developed products of their own, it is contradictory to what the mature markets have to offer since most of them concentrate on developing of products and services themselves rather than trying to just do a commissioning job. We are respected in the industry both within India and abroad for the technological advantage we carry as all the products are self developed. Hence, maturity is still a challenge in the Indian market while sales and revenue is still a distant dream.

ITVN: What is very specific in terms of application needs amongst Indian customers?

DC: With rapid growth in the number of service providers and increasing competition in the telecom industry, customer experience has emerged as one of the important differentiating factors for the service providers in increasing their subscriber base. The challenges are immense in these areas of education, culture and healthcare. Social networks have brought customers closer to each other and made them more vocal about their choices. Multipurpose devices that combine voice, video, Internet access, content and applications that alter our lifestyles are the prime demands today.

ITVN: What kinds of applications are most in demand here?

DC: Voice is by far the biggest in VAS. With 10 million new subscribers being added every month primarily from the rural areas of India VOICE VAS is going to be the most preferred for the customers. With India having around 28 languages and several dialects, voice as a form will be accepted by most of them. Even today, many FMCG companies have started reaching to their customers through voice as a medium. Keeping in mind this development we have designed Mobismart and are proud to inform that MobiSmart is very well known in the market for these offerings and has been used by several Media Companies + FMCG + Infrastructure companies for reaching out to customers / employees / etc.

ITVN: How is the Indian market poised to grow in terms of value and technology?

DC: Today the biggest technology trend is cloud computing and the Indian operators are lapping it up. Operators are fast realizing that the importance of cloud computing and the tangible benefit it will bring to their revenue. Now-a-days people are expecting the new facilities like TIB X, CS-MGW Platforms. In 2G legacy mobile networks voice is carried through the mobile core network, transparency 3G Network Elements are available.

ITVN: How is NetXcell tapping into the opportunity that lies in the market?

DC: Enterprise (Bulk SMS + Voice + USSD Push) and 3G products like Video Streaming / Mobile Advertising / Cell Broadcasting are some of the latest in the offerings. These products have been proved to be successful in the market within India and outside of India based on the research done by us. We already have deployed some of these in the International Markets and have been rated the BEST. Once 3G is launched in the market, we will see a lot of products and services being offered which are different from the current situation, and NETXCELL is proud to be one of the few players who are completely ready with solutions to face the challenge.

ITVN: What is your marketing strategy and delivery model?

DC: Netxcell has a 3 directional strategy for expanding its presence. 1 expand within the Indian Markets by offering new services / products to operators; 2 reach out to customers through our B2C initiative (Mobismart etc) and create a new revenue stream through enterprise services; 3- expand outside India to operators and enterprises. We are proud to inform that Netxcell has already started working on these areas. Netxcell is known for its technological advantage and its proactive support that it offers to the clients. Since all the products that we have deployed have been developed by us, we are confident of resolving any issues within the least TAT and hence are much more confident of our service support at all times. We are aptly positioned ourselves as a player who could develop any product in 60 days flat!

ITVN: What are the technologies that you are working with?

DC: Enterprise (Bulk SMS + Voice + USSD Push) and 3G products like Video Streaming / Mobile Advertising / Cell Broadcasting are some of the technologies we deal with.

ITVN: What are the plans for the coming fiscal?

DC: Our plans will be to acquire as many as new customers. Segmentation which has been critical has to be targeted. We are planning to maintain high quality standards and meticulous training procedures to ensure that our employees are well-equipped to enable customer/operator brand management. We are looking at delivering consistent results to customers and operators and resolving issues speedily to give us the competitive edge.