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In the past, telephones were used for basic, voice-based phone calls, but in today\\\'s world consumers use their cellular phones to play games, read news headlines, surf the Internet, keep a tab on astrology, do online trading, share documents, write blogs, do chatting, listen to music, book a ticket for movie, or check bank balance etc. And still consumers continuously keep demanding more and more from their phones.

India is one of the fastest growing telecom market in the world and had a total subscriber base of over 525 million in December 2009, adding around 11-12 million new subscribers every month. This figure is further expected to reach a total subscriber base of around 893 million by 2012, according to COAI (Cellular operators association of India).

All these new customers would bring a new set of expectations for unique and new value added services from the mobile service providers. The increased number of cell phone users and their aspirations to use mobiles for various purposes has allowed for a growing variety of value added services (VAS). Any other service besides mobile voice services are called as mobile data services or VAS.

Current mobile value-added services being offered by service providers in India, may be categorized into entertainment related VAS, information related VAS and mCommerce related VAS. Entertainment related value added services include, downloading ringtones, jokes, caller ringback tones, games etc., Information related VAS includes information on movie tickets, news, stock updates, education related, banking account etc. and services like transfering of money from one bank account to other using mobile, buying tickets, doing trading using mobile phone would comprise a part of mCommerce related VAS.

Among the various value added services most popular is person-to-person SMS which is almost universally used by all consumers. However, acceptance and use of other types of services is still low. But the increased number of mobile users would definitely allow for acceptance and growth of variety of value added services based on the attributes of relevance, importance and convenience. And now, with numerous individual value-added products and services, all cellular service providers are attempting to enter this growing value-added service market.

Already players like Aircel, Vodaphone, Idea and other players too in their value proposition are trying to promote these VAS also as a strategy to differentiate themselves from other players in the market. These companies have been spending huge amount of budget on media and advertising highlighting their offerings in the form of advanced VAS. Though at present mobile VAS are accounting for only 10 12 per cent of the total revenue to the telecom service providers.

But it has been observed over the years that the average revenue per user has been continuously declining because of the reduction in call rates and introduction of some of the marketing interventions in form of lifetime free schemes. Initially this reduction had helped the service providers in increasing the subscriber base and also has some impact on expanding the minutes of use of the existing base, but in the long run the sustainability would come by popularizing more and more new mobile VAS with high perceived value.

Consumer involvement in consumption would be high if the value proposition talks about delivery of customized, timely and location specific services to the individual customers, for example, grooming calls, the frequent mobile phone calls within friendship network as a emotional function of showing concern, and also as an ability to perform work related tasks without constraints of physical presence in office.

Also mobile payments i.e. the payment transaction completed via a mobile device if perceived secure by the consumers would emerge as a new business model where customers and businesses would interact and transact via advanced mobile devices. Creation of these VAS that customers would be willing to purchase would be based primarily on the underlying dimension of value- for- time.

Hence, the increased importance of VAS is leading all cellular service providers to attempt to explore those services which would ensure higher returns per user and thus resulting in increased revenues. Telecom service providers need to understand the market status of mobile VAS as well as the prevailing consumer patterns. Thus, there exists a vast world beyond voice that needs to be explored and tapped and the entire cellular industry is heading towards it to provide innovative options to their customers. Spoilt by choice, the mobile phone subscribers are now beginning to choose their operators on the basis of the value added services they offer.

Nevertheless, different groups based on their age, income and occupation will be having varying opinions of the usefulness of certain VAS. One group may have a high opinion of a specific value-added service feature, whereas another group may completely reject this value-added offering. This phenomenon occurs due to varying expectations of VAS, but it provides an opportunity to segment the market and propose differentiated offerings for different segments. As the competition between mobile VAS providers becomes very tight, each company has to be able to provide high-quality services and thus better satisfy their customers. Cell phone service providers need to study the market and should have accurate information for consumer preferences on the basis of which they can develop future services.

Authors Profile

Dr. Anjali Malik, Associate Professor, IILM Institute for Higher Education earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration from University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh. She holds a BSc. In Agriculture and A.H. from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Tech., Pantnagar and PGDBM in Marketing. Her research and teaching interest include CRM, Rural marketing and Consumer Behavior. She has around 10 years of Industry, research and teaching experience and has taught various papers of marketing at post-graduate level.