Aricent launches Celltop; eyes growing VAS segment

New Delhi, May 20 (UNI) With the Value-added Services (VAS) segment in India expected to grow to 10 billion dollars by 2010, leading communications software company Aricent today launched 'Celltop' to enable delivery of content, commerce and communication services on GSM and CDMA networks.

''Celltop, the mobile client framework will help in developing content, m-Commerce and services on the mobile platform, both GSM and CDMA,'' company President and COO Sanjay Dhawan told reporters here.

In addition, the Celltop software development kit (SDK) for both BREW uiOne and Java handset platforms is available for third party developers, content providers and aggregators to create future cells for the programme, he added.

The company is in discussion with major Indian service providers to use the services in the country, which is witnessing a telecom boom, supplemented by VAS.

The framework includes ready-to-run cells such as inbox, stocks, weather, news, call-log and ringtones.

Celltop was initially launched on select US-based Alltel wireless phones in January last year, and will be extended to more operators this year.

''Globally, we are talking to more than 20 operators,'' Mr Dhawan said.

The platform expects to gain popularity as it offers personalisation of screen, reduced click distance, increased Average Revenue Per User and multilingual capability.

There is an increased push towards localised content as mobile operators look at rural and semi-urban markets.

A multilingual application would, therefore, provide an immense opportunity in India. Reliance Communications, for exapmle, offers six languages and is scaling it up to support 11 more.

The Indian telecom industry is performing impressively as without any significant government subsidisation, today there are more than 250 million mobile subscribers cutting across classes throughout the country.

Handsets are increasingly becoming the nexus of mobile content and applications led by a strong demand for mobile data content.

As the Indian industry shifts from low cost to high-end devices as well, technology providers cannot disregard the increasing importance of multimedia-rich phones in this burgeoning marketplace.

UNI SR PDT RN1732