The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) published a consultation document on the country’s Mobile Value Added Services ecosystem, noting that “the services provided over a mobile phone today have moved beyond their fundamental role of voice communications to a range of value added services.” Because of this evolution, the watchdog said that “a harmonised ecosystem needs to be developed for ushering growth in all the segments of the value added service viz content development, technology platform, content aggregation, etc, thereby enabling benefits to consumers and also revenue generation.” The regulator is inviting comments from stakeholders up to 12 August 2011, and “counter-comments” on these up to 19 August.

TRAI highlighted the potential of mobile devices to bridge the digital divide in India, making it possible to deliver a portfolio of services and content to subscribers in both urban and rural areas. The low penetration of PCs in the country was also noted, in that “managing and buying PCs and laptops is still too expensive for our masses.” In addition to entertainment, mobile valued added services can address banking, health, tele-education and government service needs, making these available to the wider population “through innovative applications.” The growth of mobile data services in India was highlighted, including growth in the subscriber base from 31.3 million at the end of March 2007 to 381.4 million in March 2011. With Indian operators subject to tough competition and price erosion in their core communications services, VAS was identified as a tool for operators to generate “additional revenue, service differentiation, and customer retention.”