Voice SMS: Next big thing in mobile segment

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Mumbai, July 22 (UNI) It is tipped to be the next big thing in the gamut of value added service and though it is still in its nascent stage, Voice SMS' is set for widespread adoption among the mobile service operators in the days to come.

Voice SMS enables a user to send SMS messages by recording the voice to the handset and a country like India offers a tremendous potential for this technology to flourish especially in rural areas.

Voice SMS scores over the text message as it can be used by people who are illiterate or those who have difficulty in a particular language. Besides, there was no emotion conveyed in text message which is something voice SMS would make possible.

Many VAS operator is already making a move in this lucarative proposition of Voice SMS.

Kirusa, a leading mobile value added services provider is already tied up with service operator BPL who are providing this service to their subscribers.

Inderjit Singh Mumick, CEO Kirusa who had already obtained US patent for the technology is optimistic about the future growth of Voice SMS'.

''Voice SMS is a very high growth market and as per estimates, the global market could be worth nine to 15 billion dollar by the year 2010.'' he said.

Presently, however, the market size is only one to five per cent of what has been projected for 2010.

''This is a new technology and its very easy to use, and once this service will be rolled out by the leading operators it will surely replace the text SMS particulary in rural areas.'' According to Mumick, globally, the mobile phone industry is raking in 585 billion dollars as revenues from value added services. By the year 2010, global SMS traffic is projected to grow to 2.4 trillion messages with revenues of over 65 billion dollars accounting for 10-20 per cent of total revenues of a mobile carrier.

On the other hand, the voice SMS is also turning out to be a refreshing offer in the crowded VAS segment for mobile service operators.

Sunzay Passari, Vice president of Essar Teleholdings who are the first to introduce the service for its subscribers in Mumbai said ''It's really a good product and easy to use but all operators should offer the service which will really make it popular among the subscriber.'' With the average revenue per user (ARPU) falling every day for the service operators, everyone is adding new products in the value added service to increase the revenue and voice SMS can be the right choice they are looking for.

UNI

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