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The VAS Industry is expected to touch a turnover of over Rs. 21,000 Crore by the year 2013. India is one of the fastest growing markets for mobile telephony communication. Complementing the growth of the mobile industry is the diverse value added services (VAS) that are being offered by the operators to be at variance from the competition.

These figures have been revealed by the industry experts who congregated at 7th VAS INDIA 2010, organised by Bharat Exhibitions at Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

Internet has been considered as a radical phenomenon in the past decade due to the rapid acceptance in the everyday lives of people around the world. But now the Mobile is all set to create a similar revolution, emphasized Mr. Subhash Dhar, Member Executive Council and Group Head – Sales and Marketing, Infosys in his keynote speech. Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) are about to create a huge buzz in the market for the masses.

The point was supported by Mr. Uday Sodhi, Chief Executive Officer, Balaji Telefilms. He remarked, “The current Average Revenue per User (ARPU) lingers around 8-9% however by the end of this year we shall see a rise to about 12-14% with an extensive increase to nearly Rs. 11,000 Crore.”

“The future of businesses will be driven by broader digital engagement with their consumers and will act as a catalyst in the future economy,” according to Mr. Dhar. He further added that all ecosystem players will have to join hands to bring Mobile Value Added Services to the masses.

With over more than 500 Million mobile phone users  in the country, penetration to various areas with multilingual diversities and providing vast content like games, applications, astrology, Mobile banking etc. and related services is a challenge which has to be accomplished. The emphasis was made on the 3G/4G aspect and provision of faster access like broadband availability to take MVAS further during the event.

Mr. Shyam Mardikar, Sr. Vice President - Networks, Bharti Airtel Limited said, “Telecom is a mature business and the consumer is choosy, quality of services needs to be refined, optimised and manifestation of existing services has to be done”.

For Mr. SS Sirohi, Principal General Manager & Head, VAS, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, a company which already a provider of the 3G service in India, mobile banking was the topic of discussion. He focused on volumes and diverse content provisioning; mobile advertising as well as location based services like GPRS which are in their initial stages.

BSNL is one of the two stat-run operators that have the permission to offer the 3G services in India. Nearly 7.5 Lakh customers are using 3G BSNL, currently available in 300 cities and the target is to spread it to 700 cities by July 2010. 50 Million ringtones are downloaded every month.

As for the future prospects Sirohi mentioned that the Indian Premier League shall be merging with Youtube and the cricket match can be viewed from the cell phone with a staggering 36 camera view options. The speed of 3G is 3.5Mbps if the download speed is enhanced or the bandwidth is increased, user will have an enriched experience by downloading movies, games, and utilities at a faster rate. He added, new customers, new platforms, new generators, new operators are joining the market everyday so the opportunity is tremendous.

The MVAS will bring about a change in lifestyle of the common man mentioned Mr. Lloyd Mathias, President & Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited. He elaborated his point by giving an example of a fisherman from Kerala who has to sell his fish to the dealer at the rate at which the dealer pays him; however, with the introduction of MVAS, he will be able to get the best deal available.

The chief guest in the conference Mr. RN Prabhakar, Member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, (TRAI) had a similar opinion and focussed on how MVAS has become so important and innovative for the telecom operators with the intense competition bringing down the ARPU and the tariff. Finally he concluded the speech saying “MVAS will bring about a huge change and improve the living standards for all the classes and the market is just ripe for bringing about and to be a part of the change”.