Ridind with 3030 to Elevate

 (A continuation of 3030 making its presence felt) 

This weekend it seems 3030 is not only making its presence felt but it is planning my weekend too … Browsing through the news paper this morning, I noticed an ad for zahid Mustafa performing at elevate and in the corner of the ad I noticed an all too familiar short code  3030. Compelling me to sms elevate for the lineup’s of the weekend.

 

Sitting at the breakfast table ,discussing our plans for the  weekend  , my brother made plans  to test drive a few cars and buying  a car for himself  finally !! .Lying  next to him on the table  was a ad to test drive the new  Chevrolet Aveo   , funnily 3030 had a role to play there to , it seems I will be testing the Chevrolet Aveo over the weekend . Thanks 3030 

  I am looking forward to the weekend and more I guess wondering where 3030 will pop – up next.

Rahul Guha joins as VP – Products

Rahul Guha joins One97 Communications (P) Limited as Vice President, Products. He has moved from Times Internet where he was handling product development, sourcing and alliances. Rahul brings onboard vast experience in the new economy sectors and mobile VAS. His experience and leadership skills are expected to enhance development capability of One97. At One97 Communications, Rahul will be responsible for complete product development life cycle for telcos as well as enterprise clients. His earlier stint was with ACL wireless.Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Managing Director, One97 communications said, “One97 is at a very exciting juncture. Having established itself as the leading Mobile VAS player in
India, we are spearheading some of the sharpest innovations in the sector. We intend to achieve our goals with help of exemplary leadership teams that One97 is home to. Having Rahul join us is step closer in solidifying the vision of One97.”

Short codes in advertising for higher ROI

Ask any advertising guru and they will say that most effective advertising is when it has high recall value and/or call-for-action from the target audience.

Mobile advertising solves the dilemma to a large extent – target audience can be defined, advertisers’ details can be instantly saved on handsets, and contacted when required.

A UK based research has revealed that 44% of mobile users between the ages of 18 and 60, could not respond to advertising as they would have forgotten details of the advertisers. This is despite searching for the product/company. Mobile shortcodes are a great help in this scenario as mobile users are able to sent text to short codes and receive further information. (Article on the research)

Seems like the research collaborates what we have been saying so often

 

We’ll be rocking the movies !!!!

Big Tree just launched its very own movie ticket site BookMyShow.com, it basically offers online real-time booking and seat selection at theatres and events in as many as 27 cities across India. This will be awesome for all of us who seem to be constantly worrying ,whether we will be able to get tickets for our favorite movies or shows .

The great part is where bookmyshow are getting noticed for there idea and providing all the movie buffs and entertainment seekers a platform to avail of a holistic entertainment services,it is the easy navigation  and the supporting m -commerce application that will be making the buzz ….. in fact  It’s we at one97 who will be making the news  here………………

Pat yourselves on the back guys !

One97 is the mobile tech. partners for BookMyShow.com with the fastest turn around time providing Big Tree its m commerce solutions .

Ibnlive.com and contentsutra seem to be talking about it at http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-bigtree-tries-to-play-ticketmaster-with-bookmyshow/

Some of our supporters have infact pointed out to content sutra that it’s One97 who support bookmyshow phone applications  …whoever it was ……… Thanks.

3030 makes its presence felt

To give you an example of how 3030 is showing up, I shall talk about a typical day, a weekend.

Just imagine being stuck in traffic behind a slow moving auto rickshaw. It is but natural that you would notice what’s written behind it. I saw an advertisement for a website called propertysensex.com printed behind the auto. It said that one could SMS Sensex to 3030. I jumped!

Earlier in the morning, the last page of the newspaper had given me another glimpse of our very own 3030 beneath a full-page ad for UNITECH group’s new construction. Moving over to the supplement, I found 30308888 peeping from an Indiatimes promo. More surprise was in store as I flipped through the pages of India Today, and found another full page ad with 3030 in the contact information for a new car from the GM Motors stable.

Later in the day I stopped at a Barista outlet, and as I waited for my coffee, I flipped through their newsletter and found 3030 smiling at me from every single page of the tabloid sized newsletter.

Marathi TV watchers of India are seeing 3030 every single day on Mi Marathi, as they are asked to participate in a contest where they have to spot an umbrella and SMS the name of the serial to 3030.

The best part of my day was when I ended up at Elevate, the disco to unwind in the evening. I spotted a whole wall filled with 3030, as I stood in the queue for my turn to come! Must have been some 100-200 pamphlets with 3030 prominently displayed on them covering the wall.

This is another plus of our enterprise business; visibility to our short code. I am sure by the time it becomes 53030, I would have many more stories to tell!

Smita Rajan

Eyes Wide Open

Walking into one97 rather apprehensive – my first day in a new office and a new industry , I had heard about it, spoken about it yet was still contemplating what VAS was all about … Value added services was great but what more? …..hardly knowing that I used the applications daily and honestly can’t live without it . 

 I started my graph of learning at what was one 97 who they are and what they are , and to my surprise I had landed into a company that spoke , ate and slept technology ( imagine me who hardly knew , a soft copy from a hard one ) Terms like OBD , CRBT , RBT flew over my head as Vijay spoke , assured that I would learn I sat in the conference room quietly amongst a team of product guys talking about WAP , VOICE . USSD and SMS , finally the last term I was well acquainted with (……. breathing a sigh of relief I wasn’t lost ) after all it did constituted to 91% of the mobile bill I receive every month .

 Its been 28days and so far as I can say I’m amazed at the way VAS is growing and so is this company , the secret an amazing team of people who together are a force to reckon with, who are passionate, gung-ho and extremely dedicated ( I know I may be the corp. comm. Manager and image building is one of my K.R.A’s but truly an amazing lot )I am yet to see a person who doesn’t walk-in with a smile on his face or isn’t happy to be here .

I guess I’m learning about this industry and like a child in toy store I’m playing with a new toy everyday and of course realizing that I have been a boon to this industry in spending large sum’s of money on picking an appropriate CRBT ( ya I know the term ) , spending a better part of an hour on it and not releasing it costing me a bomb ….. Well lesson well learnt, I’m keeping my ears and my eyes wide open, let‘s see what more I can learn .

- to be continued some time

Exciting times ahead

Indian Telecom space is heating up and how! Gartner’s research predict wireless services to hit $25.61 billion by year 2011. Year 2006 figures touched $2.95 billion making the growth per annum to be 18.4% per annum in the period 2007 – 2011. As expected, growth in data revenue will outpace voice revenue with a contribution of 22% in total wireless revenue in year 2011 as opposed to 9.6% in 2006.

 

Despite rapid expansion of wireless services in India, only about 2% of rural areas are covered while the total coverage area is 12.7%. Gartner predicts that of the expected 38.6% total coverage, 58% will be rural based connection and 95% will be urban connection.  

 

Drivers which we feel will fuel this growth are:

#   Lower entry level tariff

#   Under $25 handsets with current emphasis on research to provide entry level handsets

#   Attractive pricing of bundled up services with handset

#   Increased focus on rural marketing of cellular services

#   Greater efficiency in deployment of services

#   Integration of market players

#   Concentration of telecom operators to provide core service and marketing of these services

#   Further drop in call rates to match the landline rates

#   Expansion of businesses in semi-urban and rural areas

#   Availability of wider array, localized and user specific mobile Value Added Services

 

With the subscriber base expected to be 462 million by 2011, user friendly simple-to-use applications that can tap into the needs or aspirations of users will see fast adoption. Each region has its own need, but certain common denominators exist. Entertainment will always remain the primary desire of a subscriber (besides connectivity, of course).  Whether we take up from current scenario of TV and movie based entertainment or create new genres, Value Added Services developers and provides are never going to be short of space to expand.

 

And then there are services that fulfill needs of the users. Rural areas, which lack means of dissemination of information, will adopt such services if they are available at affordable prices. One of the most exciting applications will be the related to medical facilities. These facilities are relatively inaccessible to rural population. Their availability by means of video conferencing or even as a voice service is a space waiting to be tapped. Urban population, which is used to greater array of services, will demand their availability on mobiles.

 

Data revenue at rate of 22% of the predicted $25.61 billion works out to be $5.63 billion – enough to keep the existing players excited and attract new talent into this space.

VAS INDIA 2007

This year  VAS INDIA had a substantial turn out, all to discuss the VAS  business opportunities growing at almost 40% per annum (some even claiming 50%). The market today is said to be over Rs 4,500-crore. This is in spite of a major spectrum hurdle.  One wonders if government had kept its 3G promises what would have happened to our economy. Our  guess is a parallel VAS economy supplying content to the world like no other VAS economy in the world.

Vijay  Shekhar sharma was one of the key speakers at the conference and spoke about VAS in the Indian Telecom Industry and the new avenues to explore within an already growing industry .

For those  who missed out here’s vijay presentation …..

3 cheers to 3G

We are very excited with the imminent adoption of 3G networks and technologies in India. For a country which is enamoured by television and films, high quality transmission of TV channels, downloading music tracks and streaming video is likely to be killer applications with availability of better bandwidth and reliable data transfer at high speed. 3G technologies have capability to support heavier downloads of multimedia files.

Mobile being such a personal product, entertainment on mobile will see phenomenal growth. Each user will make choices based on his tastes and content developers and providers can fulfill their demands on multimedia platform. Whether it is music on demand, streaming videos, video blogging, video chatting or films shot especially for small mobile screens, we wouldn’t be limited to voice or text.

Last mile connectivity being a major issue, number of Indians with internet access has been very limited. For a large number of present count of 170 million mobile subscribers, internet connectivity via 3G networks would be first brush with it dues to its faster internet browsing capability. Email functions by handheld is expected to become an essential service for mobile Indians in 3G scenario.

Rural India, which is the target for expansion of subscriber base, can be served well with applications that fulfill the lack of certain basic amenities. They include access to knowledge centres like institutes of learning or even libraries, medical facilities and others. Interactive learning can be facilitated with video conferencing or visually interactive medical aid over mobile phones or for that matter even talk to a medical representative sitting in some other location. Farming advice can be sought by sending visual images of their fields/crops to experts in government organisations.

Gaming which is on rise in India, will take off to greater heights as feature rich mobiles will offer console like gaming experience. New emerging technologies will support greater interaction among groups of users. Multiple user gaming, currently not much fun due to poor state of GPRS connection, will see phenomenal growth.

Mobile banking, payment through mobiles will be another growth dimension. Of course for telcos,  especially in current scenario of over subscribed to the point of choking networks, the most significant feature of 3G technologies is the capability to support greater number of voice and data customers. But 3G services, if priced correctly – and this is going to be the success determinant – will see mobiles evolving into an organiser, entertainment device, payment device and of course communication device for masses. Revenue from such value added services through 3G is the ray of light for telcos who will continue to see drop in the bottom line of voice revenue.

One97 Partners with HP for Enhanced Voice and 3G Applications for telco networks

HP OpenCall Powers Technology Development at One97
One97 Communications, India’s leading telecom solutions provider in partnership with Hewlett-Packard, has announced the setting up of a first of its kind 3G telecom and technology laboratory to research and develop technologies and applications for the 2.5G and 3G market. The research lab is powered by HP’s OpenCall Media Platform (OCMP), the most comprehensive and mature voice service platform in the industry. HP OCMP enables rapid development and secure deployment of next-gen voice and video messaging, portals and enhanced interactive services.

With this partnership, HP recognizes One97 Communications’ commitment to the development of high quality and innovative mobile applications. This relationship enables One97 to offer ready-to-install applications for 2G and 3G networks for the Indian as well as the Global markets. The R & D at the new laboratory will focus on creating applications for deployment and integration of HP platform with existing telecom networks including development of VAS applications.

According to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Managing Director, One97 communications, “One97’s vision and focus entails becoming a global VAS enabler through business and technology innovations. Partnership with HP provides us with the latest developments in network platforms and access to their worldwide support services to help build unrivalled capability as a global telecom VAS service provider.”

Says T Srinivasan, Executive Director, HP Software: “We chose to partner with One97 Communications as they have a proven record of leadership in developing and executing innovative applications that cater to market requirements. HP is the global leader in the supply of 3G technological platforms and this relationship helps showcase this prowess.”
HP OCMP supports development of the VoiceXML applications, as well as IP multimedia subsystem based services with its media resource function capabilities including next-generation voice mail, mass alarming and alerting, 3G video capabilities, personalized ring-back tone, video messaging and others. Scalable and backed by HP’s worldwide delivery, support and services organization, the HP OCMP integrates easily with existing network architectures, allowing service providers to rapidly capitalize on near-term business opportunities such as large-scale interactive voice response (IVR) applications, unified messaging, virtual call centers and entertainment services.