Contents - Connect-World

Industrial Development
currently offer a wide range of services
in India including:
ˆ Wireless connectivity based on GSM
or CDMA;
ˆ State of the art technology wireline
networks;
ˆ Broadband and Internet connectivity;
ˆ Value added services such as location
based services, push to talk, messaging,
multilingual SMS and host of
content based applications among
others;
ˆ MPLS (multi-protocol label switching)
and VoIP (voice over Internet
Protocol).
Indias improved telecom infrastructure
has been a great help to various
industries:
ˆ BPOs, business process outsourcers,
provide call centre services and need
very reliable communications, as
there is a penalty for every dropped
call;
ˆ Offshore software development
companies such as Wipro, TCS,
Infosys, Satyam etc, provide software
services for international clients; connectivity
is crucial to their business;
ˆ FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer
Goods) companies running centralised
applications have shifted their
data centres to India—to telcos offering
data centres and reliable global
connectivity.
The worlds leading OSS-BSS
(Operations and Business Support
Services) players—CSG, Convergys,
Portal, Intec, Comptel, Metasolv and
HP—are developing their latest solutions
in the billing, mediation, interconnect,
fraud and revenue assurance,
service assurance, inventory management,
and service provisioning etc. in
India.
India has many prepaid and post paid
mobile subscribers. The telcos offer
them a wide range of plans, innovative
ideas, new applications and powerful
devices to meet their needs. Nokia,
Samsung, LG, Ericsson, and Motorola
dominate the handset market.
Indias major market segments have a
variety of specific needs:
ˆ Upper class Consumers: High-end,
feature rich, handsets and data services
(MMS etc.). In this segment,
almost every household member over
12 years of age has a phone;
ˆ Upper Middle Consumers: These
need to be connected and want to be
trendy;
ˆ Lower Middle class households and
entrepreneurs: This segment is largely
prepaid; it includes small entrepreneurs
who use it for work, e.g.
Reliance Infocomm offered them call
rates as low as 1 cent per minute and
hopes this way to replace other means
of communication, such as letters,
with phones;
ˆ Corporate segment: The segment
needs to maintain contact with its key
employees and uses closed-user-group
services to reduce the costs of voice
communication with its employees.
Corporate users are big customers for
Internet connectivity and data communications
in general;
ˆ Small and Medium Enterprises:
This segment needs reduced cost
mobile connectivity; it uses shared
services and virtual private networks
for data services instead of proprietary
data networks.
Overall, though, the most important
single trend observed seems to be the
replacement of landline with convenient,
lower cost, mobile service.
Mobile users now exceed wireline consumers
in parts of India.
In India, Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) is
continually creating completely new
solutions for enterprise customers
that promise to be major revenue generators
around the globe.
Telecom service providers and IT
services providers are working closely
to address customer requirements
that depend upon integrated ICT
infrastructures. These include such
critically important applications as
enterprise data centres that connect
and integrate a companys offices
worldwide as well as to its corporate
disaster recovery centre.
Solutions are needed that let businesses
run non-stop, 24x7, with 99.9 per
cent uptime. This requires IT and
telco companies to work together to
ensure client business application
availability.
The ICT sector is working to provide a
new level of support for the corporate
markets key needs by connecting a
large, mobile, workforce; and developing
an e-enabled organisation with
automated workflow based processes
for day to day functioning and regular
feedback from workers in the field.
IT companies and telcos are joining
hands to meet these business needs
for mobile, e-enabled, corporate applications,
in particular:
ˆ Email/Messaging—almost all telcos
in India offer mobile email access; this
is a very popular application;
ˆ Office productivity - office applications
such as MSWord, PowerPoint,
and Excel are being offered as services;
ˆ Sales force automation—to enable
the sales force to regularly upload
sales information for management
review;
ˆ Dealer/retailer outlet connectivity -
large corporations in the FMCG and
manufacturing sectors have extended
value chains. The need to be connected
with their support infrastructure
and retailers is critical to their business.
Mobile enabling of these applications
has been a growth catalyst in
these sectors.
The telecom segment in India has had
a major impact upon the day-to-day
life of individuals and the way business
is conducted by organisations,
and has helped speed the countrys
economic development. In years to
come, India will be a place to watch for
key innovations and as an example to
other parts of globe.
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comments ...
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