Expanding Mobile VAS

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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.

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