call of duty

The mobile industry in India, witnessing an exponential growth in user traffic, has created a demand for professionals in the entire mobile value-added service chain, writes Gagan Chadha

Mobile phones today have moved beyond their fundamental role of communication and graduated to becoming an extension of the persona of the user, a style statement. We are witnessing an era when users buy mobile phones not just to be in touch, but to express themselves, their attitude, lifestyle and interests.

According to a recent Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) study done jointly by IAMAI and IMRB International, the Mobile VAS industry in India was estimated at Rs 2850 crore at the end of 2006 and is estimated to grow at 60 per cent to touch Rs 4560 crore by the end of 2007. This space is currently completely dominated by entertainment services and comprises : P2P SMS — Rs. 1140 crore; Ringtones (including CRBT) — Rs. 1026 crore; P2P & A2P— Rs 428 crore; Games and Data — Rs. 171 crore; Others (MMS etc) — Rs 86 crore.

As the P2P SMS component accrues completely to the telcos, the remaining 60 per cent (Rs 1710 crore) is where revenue sharing arrangements exist between content owners/developers and telecom companies; thus the Mobile VAS industry in India (excluding Telco share) is currently 24 per cent of Rs. 2850 crore, estimated at Rs. 684 crore.

Although, the market is expanding, the ARPU per subscriber has been steadily falling. Therefore, operators have strategically decided to focus on mobile data services.

Right now, mobile data services contribute around 8 per cent of the revenues of operators and are poised to rise to 20 –25 per cent in the near future.

The mobile industry in India has been on a boom. Nearly 5 million subscribers are added month on month. It is projected that India will have 250 million subscribers by the end of next year. With this kind of growth, there is a demand for professionals in the entire mobile value chain. Outstanding individuals with IT or telecom background have a bright chance to shape, build, market and deliver premium mobile services that will significantly change the way consumers discover, buy, and enjoy digital content from their mobile phones.

The job opportunities in this segment are two-pronged:

People from the telecom background, who have expertise in operations and know how to produce scalable architecture products to meet the exponentially growing traffic, can opt for the server side with relevant qualifications in C, C++, routers etc.

People from the IT background, who have expertise in creating good client-side applications which are good from the usability perspective, can opt for the client side with relevant qualifications in Database, UI development, Java, VB, Dot net, etc.

The salary levels may range from Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh per annum, depending on the years of experience. Increasingly, project management expertise is much sought after because of the diversity of projects.

Since project management is quite a challenging task due to multiplicity of components having disparate technologies, it provides a very good opportunity to groom project managers. Apart from technical skills, MVNOs also require highly skilled sales people who can pitch in for large enterprises and raise their career graph along with the stupendous growth in the industry. The remuneration in MVNOs is better than the IT industry and comparable to that in the telecom industry.

The new league of companies that have sprung up in the mobile data services market in the recent times are MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) in India. These companies would see unprecedented growth as they are mobile enable businesses. The companies, who have data and want it to be accessed by their employees/vendors, need integration of backend systems with telecom. MVNOs play an important role here, as they bring with them the knowledge of both the IT and telecom domain, acting as a bridge between both sectors, and help the complex IT systems integrate with the GSM/CDMA network.

The Mobile Data Services Retailing platform is the newest in this innovative professional stream. Engaged professionals need to prepare presentation framework for the retailing platform. Candidates should be able to decide architecture and design based on high-level requirements. They should have the inclination for research on smart technologies and should be able to use COTS or open- source technology/components for smart development. They should be prepared to own complete responsibility of delivering the component assigned.

So, there is ample scope in future while working with MVNOs. It is an ideal choice for people who want to hone their skills in multiple domains (IT and telecom) and want to face the challenge of doing something creative and out of the box.

The author is the COO of ValueFirst, a leading MVNO