Convergence of Devices & Apps driving VAS for Operators

Posted on February, Thursday 16, 2012 By itVAR News Network

Today's smart devices are set to take VAS to the next level and operators are ideally poised to benefit from this.

There is convergence everywhere! Convergence between telecom and diverse sectors such as finance, entertainment and media has already given rise to a host of innovative possibilities where integration of voice, video and data through a single instrument, the smart phone, can deliver applications full of i

There is convergence everywhere! Convergence between telecom and diverse sectors such as finance, entertainment and media has already given rise to a host of innovative possibilities where integration of voice, video and data through a single instrument, the smart phone, can deliver applications full of information and entertainment to the end user community. And this is driving the VAS intake for the operators today.

Today there is an urgent need for operators to inculcate innovative applications as part of their VAS strategy, and increasingly value added services are being looked upon as major driver in increasing revenues for the operators. Different scope for raising revenue under this segment exists with its VAS related application and information flow being generated in segments like medicine, agriculture, transport, manufacturing and finance as well.

Today there is a growing trend towards usage of Value added services based on the mobile smart card, e.g., the SIM and the UICC platform. An important aspect is also the positioning of the UICC/SIM as a platform for Value Added Services in current and future wireless technologies. This trend is likely to give a new dimension to the overall AS segment for the operators.

The basis for a successful service offering is applications that can bring revenue today from the existing customer base, and at the same time ensures a reliable roadmap to the future wireless technologies.

Additionally, the UICC/SIM is transforming itself into a multi-application platform where end users can have several telecom applications in parallel with non- telecom applications. The UICC/SIM is also evolving to a JAVA based platform, allowing the development of interoperable UICC/SIM applications.

This interesting evolution during the last couple of years has been very favorable for the SIM technology. It is now becoming clear that almost all of the future mobile communications focused technologies will have a smart card based Subscriber Identity Module, whether it is called SIM, USIM or R-UIM.

And the Short Message Services or SMS is experiencing a similar evolution as well; all existing and future mobile telecommunications systems will have an SMS service that is backward compatible with the SMS service of the 2G systems. All this is set to give a new definition to the VAS segment and the end users are set to benefit from this in the long run.