Next World Cup, the average Indian football fan may be watching the finals on her mobile. And once the match is over, she could get down to some serious multimedia games on her 3G-enabled phone. In between, she could be downloading videos of her favourite soccer stars or exchanging notes on the latest scores with her friends via Facebook, all on her mobile.

All this and much more will be happening in the near future, changing the way the mobile phone is perceived and used in India, and boosting mobile value added services (VAS) revenues, says the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in its latest report ?Mobile VAS in India: 2010?. Though it does not set any specific time frame for the VAS revolution to unfold, it says that mobile VAS revenue is expected to touch Rs 14,500 crore by December 2010, a hefty 22.3% jump from the Rs 11,860 crore revenue estimated at the end of June 2010. ?Entertainment VAS will continue to remain the key VAS category in the near future,? says the study. However, with other factors such as growing number of mature mobile users as well as availability of suitable technology and handsets, it is expected that data services will be leading in future VAS usage. The impact of 3G will be huge. 3G is expected to bring in high quality voice as well as high speed data and video services, all three being key components of future mobile VAS.

The report says services such as video telephony, mobile TV, video on demand will be offered relatively in sport span of time; other services such as music download, online gaming might take a little longer. The report does admit that ?implementing 3G across the ecosystem will take 2-3 years?.

This will be the transition period?operators and network providers will have to provide 3G enabled service, mobile handsets will have to be 3G compatible, and so will have to be mobile content.

With the urban market more or less saturated, it is expected that in the near future, the proportion of rural VAS users will steadily rise. As of now, 70% of VAS users belong to urban India while the balance 30% come from rural India. For a rural VAS user, the mobile is undergoing transition from a communication device to an entertainment device. ?It’s just a matter of time when rural VAS users will also demand high end value added services,? says the report. And with increased competition, and resultant falling ARPUs (average revenue per user), mobile operators can differentiate themselves only on the basis of VAS and no more on the basis of price.

The IAMAI report says that mobile operators and VAS providers need to segment the VAS users based on their needs and service usage. For instance, in urban markets, mobile operators need to target segments such as single parents, working professionals, working women, whose mobile usage and needs from mobile VAS will be very specific. They will also have enough spending power to acquire relevant VAS. On the other hand, the youth segment?the most frequent VAS user?may not be as remunerative due to lack of purchasing power or outlook towards these services.

As of June 2010, SMS (short messaging services) is the most popular of value added services. Approximately 77% of mobile subscribers use this modeand it accounts for 60% of mobile VAS revennues -40% of them are person to person SMS and 20% are SMS s exchanged between a subscriber and applications. Interactive voice response (IVR) system is the second most important VAS mode accounting for 25% of VAS revenues. It is estimated that 14% of mobile VAS users use this platform.

Looking at VAS in terms of content, entertainment mobile VAS is the prime revenue earner, accounting for 57% of MVAS revenues. Within this segment, CRBT (caller ring back tones) is the most commonly used VAS?33% of users subscribe to this feature. However, it accounted for 52% of the entertainment VAS revenues. Nearly a quarter of mobile VAS users download wallpapers, songs and music and this forms 25% of the revenue (Rs 1,690 crore). Participating in contests and voting over mobile phones is done by 15% of mobile VAS users and accounts for 15% of entertainment VAS revenues.

Value added services that deliver informational content to users form 39% of the total mobile VAS revenue (Rs 4,625 crore). Information MVAS includes one-time requests made by the subscribers to get content related to scores, updates regarding flights/ travel, etc. It also includes subscription for news/jokes/ stock updates, accessing IVR for obtaining information. In addition, there are different types of information VAS that do not belong to any specific categories.

M-commerce is a small contributor to mobile VAS revenues in India. It is estimated that all m-commerce services (mobile ticketing, mobile coupons, other m-commerce services) account for 4% of mobile VAS revenues.