World over, players are scurrying to offer a plethora of services on mobile handsets. In India, there are a few value-added services being offered at the moment but players in the cellular industry have ambitious plans. Fascel, the cellular operator in the Gujarat circle, will start offering stock quotes to their subscribers within a fortnight. According to Fascel associate vice-president (sales & marketing) Sanjeev Ghanate, "These services would initially be featured service and later after checking the response we would arrive at the right pricing model."

Subscribers in the Gujarat circle would be able to view share prices quoted on the Ahmedabad as well as BSE on their handsets. The software for this service has been developed in-house by the Fascel team.

Skycell, has already been offering free e-mail based short messaging service (SMS) through which its subscribers could send and receive short e-mail from the Internet. It has alliances with Satyam Online and Web India. This Chennai based operator is in consultation with Nokia to start offering Tamil language SMS soon.

According to officials there are plans to set up a GPRS or general packet radio system, that would enable mobile users to browse the Internet at high speeds. This, however, would be operational by the end of the next year.Meanwhile, Nokia has also been consulting several cellular operators in the Indian market to develop a platform to offer value added services. According to officials, they have been working in close association with Hutchison Max, the operator in Mumbai to develop a GPRS system that could be operational by the mid of next year.

Nokia, also unveiled its range of products, software and solutions for bringing a wealth of information and services on the Internet accessible to mobile handsets anywhere. It will also help create successful partnerships in shaping the rapid evolvement of Wireless Application Protocol services and generate opportunities.