'Operators need to promote their content to the consumers'

What are your expectations from the Indian market? Was it the
right time to enter the Indian market?

Although we are officially announcing the entry of our company in India, we
have been doing interconnect to the carriers on the person-to-person messaging
space. We also did diligence on about a dozen odd companies in India to work out
what the best entry method was. I think the Indian market is at a point, which
justifies someone of our scale to come in. A lot of our customers believe so as
well. The mobile market in India is growing at a fast pace and offers exciting
opportunities for domestic mobile operators looking to monetize content, as well
as international content companies seeking expansion into growth markets.

What is Mobiel356's strategy for the Indian market?

I believe that mobile messaging and WAP services such as music, games, and
entertainment will be key revenue drivers for the Indian operators over the next
few years. We have chalked out our strategy for penetration in Indian markets
and are quite upbeat about it.

How has been your experience in the Chinese market? How is
that different from India?

India is an easier market than China. On the other hand, China has lot of
rules and regulations in the way it has been set up and favors local providers.
The growth of mobile telephony is almost similar in both the countries with the
addition of 1 mn per month.

Do you think there is a dearth of content and applications
for the mobile?

I think there are enough content and applications, but operators need to
promote their content to the consumers.

What are you views on quality of services on messaging?

Most of the operators in India have one connection that is the reason there
are bottlenecks and delays. The other issues is obviously of the quality of
networks; and the carriers continue to spend lot of money on the networks and
that is keeping up with the increase in subscribers.

Tell us about your mobile messaging network.

We sit in the middle of more than 500 mobile operators around the world.
Some of them are over IP connections and leased lines. By sitting in the middle,
we match the messages sent from different networks. Through this network we
provide delivery, clearing, and settlement of mobile messaging services.

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in