The Hindu Business Line : TRAI seeks views on regulation of value-added services

Shifting focus
As tariff for voice calls keep decreasing, service providers will shift their focus from subscriber base expansion to value-added services, as these services have the potential to generate additional revenue.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, May 28

In a bid to boost the uptake of value-added services such as mobile commerce, location-based services and other content-based applications, the telecom regulator has floated a consultation paper to discuss the licensing and commercial terms for operators.

TRAI has sought stakeholders’ comments on various issues including the revenue share arrangement between telecom operators and value-added service (VAS) providers, copyright laws for content providers and the need to bring all providers under a licence regime.

In India, the revenue (estimated) from mobile VAS is over 10-14 per cent of the total revenue of mobile telecom service providers. This is expected to cross 30 per cent of the mobile telecom service provider’s revenue in the next 5-7 years.

As tariff for voice calls keep decreasing, service providers will shift their focus from subscriber base expansion to value-added services, as these services have the potential to generate additional revenue.

“There is no coordinated effort to make the industry grow and it also lacks transparency as the consumers are not fully aware of the nuances of the services. “But considering the market potential for value-added services in the coming years and the multiplicity of value-added services that the next generation network (NGN) and 3G will offer, there is a need to harmonise the licensing/regulatory framework for ushering growth in all the segments of the value-added service viz. content development, technology platform, content aggregation including copy right protection etc.” TRAI said.

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