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Kripa Raman

Wireless telephone operators are putting their frequencies to novel uses that have nothing to do with the mobile handset. It's ingenuity at its best.

WIRELESS telephone operators across the world are trying to offer data, entertainment or business services to help shore up sagging or stagnating Average Revenuer Per User (ARPU) figures.

And Indian operators are not far behind. The commonest data service — SMS or the short messaging service — looks as though it has been squeezed dry of all possibilities. Cricket, film or concert-related SMS contests are frequent. Then there are attractive festival-related slogans or picture messages (often created by the operators themselves) that are too interesting not to be passed on.

Operators are tying up with mutual funds and banks to offer SMS-related services to the latter's customers and also offering SMS-led bill payment facilities. More complicated uses of the mobile are being evolved. Reliance Infocomm has tied up with online auction portal Baazee.com to provide mobile bidding for Reliance IndiaMobile customers. Months earlier Reliance Infocomm had tied up with accounting software company Tally to offer an accounting network to firms through its CDMA Fixed Wireless Telephone.

The Hutch group has tied up with another financial software company Financial Technologies to bring the entire stockbroking desk on the mobile for Hutch users. Two broking outfits — Kotak Securities and Sunidhi Consultancy Services — have already launched this product called `I-Win'. Once the Indian wireless world starts to deploy closed-user-group (CUG) connectivity and Push-to-Talk technology (PTT — here the mobile phone functions like a walkie-talkie at the push of a button) there will be even more applications developed.

But what is really interesting is that operators are looking to employ their frequencies for uses that have nothing to do with the mobile handset. CDMA operator Tata Teleservices has developed a mobile police surveillance system, and has deployed it on a pilot basis in Hyderabad. A police van fitted with a pole carries a rotating digital video camera that is connected through CDMA frequency to the police station to which the van belongs. "This will be very useful in a situation of public unrest, such as a riot when the police can know exactly what is happening," says a senior official with the company. If this proves useful and also successful, then the lakhs and lakhs of police stations across the country could be TTSL's potential customers.

Reliance Infocomm, another CDMA telephone services operator, has won a contract for connecting 100 ATMs of State Bank of India through its CDMA bandwidth. Reliance's pilot project that led to this was actually a moving ATM, on a boat in Kerala which ferries passengers to the mainland from an island in the south of the State.

CDMA operators are lobbying for the lottery markets. Until now, lottery terminals were connected by means of V-SAT, which is a very expensive proposition, says a senior official associated with one of the CDMA operators. "We are hoping to replace that with CDMA connectivity."

TTSL and Reliance Infocomm claim they have scores of such applications up their sleeve. Some are being deployed on a pilot basis in remote areas in secret before their commercial availability is announced with a bang, lest the competition should pip them to the post. It is the CDMA operators who are putting their spectrum to use for purposes other than that of plain handset mobile telephony. This is because CDMA spectrum can be used more efficiently and can tolerate many users on the same bandwidth. However, GSM operators are not far behind. They are deploying technologies such as EDGE that allows them too enhanced usage of their spectrum.

Bharti, several months ago, had announced it would be launching parcel tracking services and vehicle tracking services through a combination of GSM and GPS (Global positioning System), which uses satellite connectivity.

kripram@thehindu.co.in

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