3G will not take focus away from 2G VAS: OnMobile

OnMobile, one of the largest mobile value added services companies, says that even after the rollout of 3G services in India, it will continue to focus on 2G and 2.5G.
Speaking to Telecom Yatra, Kiran Anandampillai, vice president, products, OnMobile, says, “We will be providing both 2G and 2.5G services along with 3G services. This is because we feel that even after 3G is rolled out, about 85 per cent of customers will be on 2G and only 15 per cent will use 3G. 2G will continue to remain a large market.”
Anandampillai says that most operators will be rolling out 3G services by January 2011 and even after one or two years, there will be only 15-20 per cent of penetration of these services.
“But it will still make a lot of difference to revenues of operators as well as VAS providers. There is a huge opportunity for VAS players in the industry, and as 3G gets rolled out, the adoption of VAS in India will increase,” he adds.
Currently, only BSNL and MTNL offer 3G services in India, and private operators who recently won 3G spectrum are gearing up for the launch. In the auctions, Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and S Tel, had bagged 3G spectrum.
Both the state owned telcos had launched these services in early 2009, and within a year of launch, BSNL is serving 14 lakh 3G subscribers, and aims to have more than 40 lakh by the end of the fiscal.
Anandampillai says, “The time of launch of 3G services by private operators will not be very different. Each operator wants to have some unique offerings around 3G, through which they can build their brand and market. We are in discussions with operators to offer innovative products that suit their demands and we will do our best on this front.”
3G will enable high quality multimedia services such as video calling, high speed internet browsing and live TV on 3G enabled mobile phones.