Soaring Revenue Base through Value Added Services

The traditional service that telecommunications operators are meant to provide is voice communications. However, there has been increased demand for value added service which is secondary focus of operators that has turned to be a strong source of revenue.
A value-added service (vas) is popular as a telecommunications industry term for non-core services or, in short, all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions but, it can be used in any service industry (eg. Web 2.0) for the services providers provide for no cost to promote their main service business. In telecommunication industry on a conceptual level, value-added services add value to the standard service offering, spurring the subscriber to use their phone more and allowing the operator to drive up their average revenue per user (ARPU). For mobile phones, while technologies like SMS, MMS and GPRS are usually considered value-added services, a distinction may also be made between standard (peer-to-peer) content and premium-charged content.
There are about 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, out of which 67 million mobile subscribers are Nigerian. Over 350 billion text messages are exchanged across the world every month.
Value-added services are supplied either in-house by the mobile network operator themselves or by a third-party value-added service provider (VASP), also known as a content provider (CP). VASPs typically connect to the operator using protocols like Short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP), connecting either directly to the short message service centre (SMSC) or, increasingly, to a messaging gateway that allows the operator to control and charge of the content better.
In the mobile phone market, new models are being rolled out with features targeted at specific user groups. There are feature phones for business people, with fast email services and document editing capabilities. On the other end of the spectrum are multimedia phones, further sub divided into units with advanced imaging and/or audio capability.
VAS applications
Person to Application (P2A) these are SMS messages sent by end users for contests & for seeking other information like news &  updates;  Application  to Person (A2P) are SMS inclusive of service push by enterprise service providers; Also include calls on IVRS for all other services like astrology.
Ringtones : This is inclusive of monotunes, polytunes, truetunes and also includes Caller ring back tones (CRBT).
Entertainment VAS (jokes, Bollywood Ringtones & games); Info VAS ( Information on movie tickets, news, banking account  etc); mCommerce VAS (Transactional services such as buying railway tickets or movie tickets through the mobile phone)    The revenue generation and popularity of these types of VAS revolves around two factors which are perceived value and practical value.
Technology Enablers    
Short Code Provider: these are the companies who own a short code (e.g. 8888, 3456 among others) which is sold to a third party client for some keyword and a specific period).
In the next few years, there is likely to be further specialization as network providers offer package bundles comprising of a phone, customized content, applications and a unique pricing plan targeted for some user groups. For example, one could opt for a package with a multimedia phone with huge storage space for music, digital rights management (DRM) software for sharing music and a usage plan that allows limited free downloads of songs and video.
Markets have traditionally been viewed in terms of supply and demand, in which vendors and service providers create value for which consumers are willing to pay. But in the emerging digital world, it is just as likely to be consumers themselves that create the value. A couple of examples: SMS’s or Short Message Services are perhaps the biggest success that telephone companies have had in persuading users to create their own value. Most recently, SMS-based voting used in competitions like American Idol/Pop Idol have generated large revenues for all stakeholders within a very short time.
The powerful combination of blogging or dissemination of personal content with social networking or "communitization" will have a strong bearing on the features and services that will be provided to users. There is a discernible trend in the use of mobile phones for creating and distributing blogs and video content while on the go.
The ubiquitous nature of mobile phones is ensuring that they play a key role in every major idea of this decade. As mobile phones evolve into versatile platforms for content exchange, telecom operators will be under pressure to deliver new, exciting content to grow their revenue base.
MTN recently has signed a deal with value-added services enabler and content provider IMImobile, to provide enhanced repository of current and globally popular content to 21 markets of MTN over a single platform.
IMImobile would address the local and international content needs of the company providing different flavor of music, news, sports and local contents, bringing online contents and mobile to 130 million users of the company.
The deal will also enable MTN to launch new voice and data services in its regions of operation. IMImobile is expected to earn around $150.2 billion in 2011 from mobile content and services.
MTN, having exclusive global content rights for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, will use the deal to deliver exclusive 2010 Fifa World Cup content to the mobiles of customers.
Expanding VAS
In Nigeria the list of content providers and platforms are growing by the day, some the major providers include, MTech, Cellcast, TaviaTxt, SaveMyContacts, Textnigeria, Entegration Solutions, Cellulant, CellTrust, 3G Reality Centre and A3&O among others, which generate mobile content to deliver value-added services via the GSM network operators. The mobile operators share the revenues equally with these private VAS companies, barring M-Tel, which is yet to develop a relationship with a VAS company.
The main players in the Mobile value added service chain in Nigeria apart from the National mobile operators are the content aggregators. They provide content to mobile operators; perform in-house content development and aggregating contents from other small players. They own the short codes and they have a tie up with multiple operators to ensure subscribers of all operators can access same short codes. Revenue sharing chain percentages will either encourage more independent developers or discourage them from rolling out innovative services that will promote the 3G. As it stands today, if the operators do not radically change the present revenue sharing structures which allows them to retain chunk of the value added services revenue, development efforts might not be encouraging after all.
Growth is stifled in the vas market in Nigeria because National mobile operators are playing safe and concentrating only on mass services for which content is readily available and chances of failure less. Entertainment value added service despite the fact that its practical value is minimal, is popular because of its mass appeal especially to youth segment and it is promoted over mobile commerce and infotainment which has the capacity to create real value for subscribers. Mere deployment of the 3G Networks will not automatically incite content aggregators to start developing contents. Additional investments in supporting infrastructure like in areas of digital map for those going into location based VAS, promises to be one of the leading services in Enterprise solution VAS in Nigeria.
Prevalence of low end mobile handsets is a major factor in the uptake and penetration of advance mobile technologies. Many services are not performing to their potentials despite their usefulness and many others which cannot be introduced. As the mobile markets grows, most new entrants are the low ARPU end users as most big spenders had already been taken up and hence most mobile handset coming on board might not have the features that support advance technologies. Operators worldwide are taking initiatives to collaborate with mobile phone makers to make 3G services available to more people with less entry cost through handset development, logistics and marketing initiatives. Notable among such collaborations is the 3G for all campaign spearheaded by the GSM Association that will reduce 30% from the LG phone that has been chosen.
Emmanuel Okoegwale, mobile value added services expert, said that operators need to focus on Value added services to survive the cut throat competition they are experiencing right now, reduction in voice revenues and to achieve growth forecast. According to him, there are quite a handful of innovative value added services like the Remote mobile phone book back up, by SaveMyContacts, Vehicle tracking systems, ring tone downloads and the highly successful caller Tunes. Caller Tunes has demonstrated that subscribers are ready to adopt a service that offers them an option of personalization. Mobile users always want to carry forward their individuality to their mobile phones.
While the informational and Mobile Commerce are really struggling in the mobile VAS market in Nigeria, entertainment value added services seems to be more popular because they are designed for mass appeal and leisure time usage while mobile commerce is popular in Banking industry but with few users. Simple reason is that subscribers have not just seen or perceived a compelling reason to engage the mCommerce and others. British Broadcasting Corporation reported that Nigerians are leading visitors to its site worldwide with 61% and distantly followed by South Africa at 19%.This is a classic example of usage due to compelling reason.
In other parts of the world, sport and adult contents are the chief revenue earners in the mobile value added service industry. Entertainment VAS seems to be the leading service that is driving the VAS market in Nigeria, this is because entertainment based VAS drive the market both value and volume terms.
As telecommunications sector is bracing up to implementation Number Portability, value added services stand as a major focus and driver of competition for forward looking operators to survive.