We have modified the services to meet the needs of India's urban youth

How does Virgin Mobile perceive the VAS space in India?

Virgin Mobile is a joint venture with TTSL. In this brand alliance, we aim
to provide customers with a different and innovative experience. It is the same
quality of experience that we provide to the customers in other markets, and we
intend to keep up with the same in India. We have modified the services in India
to meet the needs of the Indian urban youth. There are certain parameters that
we keep in mind while designing our services, and these parameters are also
embedded in our VAS offerings.

What is the growth in India compared to other geographies?

Generally, the reported growth in the VAS market in India is somewhere
between 5-10% compared to 15-20% in other geographies like of the US and UK. One
of the challenges in the VAS sector is pricing. Upgrade are not high because of
lack proper integration. Seamless integration will help VAS to grow
considerably. Full integration is the key to growth of the VAS sector.

Today the telecom channel community is looking at increasing their chances
of profitability. Can VAS deliver this to them?

The challenge in offering data services is pricing. Keeping this in
consideration, we have tried to keep the pricing as nominal as possible.

Are you targeting the channel community (LFRs and MBOs) to push some of
your VAS initiatives in the country?

For VAS services, it does not matter which channel you come from. Reaching
out to the end consumers is the most important part. At Virgin Mobile, we
believe in understanding the needs of the youth and keep our pricing
accordingly. Virgin Mobile has tried to provide innovative services even through
its VAS offerings.

Do you have any content partners or is the content created by Virgin
Mobile itself?

There are content partners we work. Most content of our VAS offerings is
from third party. We work with content providers like Hungama, Sony BMG, Nazara,
Mauj, Indiagames, etc. We also have a small content team at Virgin Mobile.

What is your go to market strategy when it comes to delivering VAS
solutions to the end customer?

There have been initiatives to push VAS through mass retail. We started with
kiosks and organized retails. We have also trained our customer care on how to
sell certain VAS services and address queries regarding the same. We have also
integrated VAS services with customer care calls.

Educating the end consumer is a spontaneous process. The written material on
the device and connection is a form of education. When the service is activated,
all aspects of it are elaborated for the customer. The various forms of
promotion of the VAS services are also different forms of education. We also use
voice portal for educating the end customer.

When will Virgin Mobile target rural services?

Our services will be available wherever TTSL is present. Virgin Mobile has
doubled in a few months and we have plans to expand further.

Will VAS services shoot up with the introduction of 3G services?

There are certain important factors to be taken into consideration regarding
3G services. With the introduction of 3G, the cost will go down. The other part
of the equation is the device. There have to be 3G enabled handsets. Integration
among the handset, the network and VAS offerings will be an integral part. All
these factors are taken into consideration in markets all across.

Amit Pandey

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in