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Introduction

Mobile in Minute papers

 Value-added Service Characteristics

All VAS share the same characteristics:

1. Not a form of basic service but rather adds value total service offering
2. Stands alone in terms of profitability and/or stimulates incremental demand for core service(s)
3. Can sometimes stand alone operationally
4. Does not cannibalize basic service unless clearly favorable
5. Can be an add-on to basic service, and as such, may be sold at a premium price
6. May provide operational and/or administrative synergy between or among other services – not merely for diversification

Every VAS will demonstrate one or more of the above characteristics. Furthermore, a value-added service will never stand in stark contrast to any of the above characteristics.

VAS also have a certain time dimension associated with them. Subjectively speaking, a value-added service today becomes a basic service when it becomes sufficiently common place and widely deployed to no longer provide substantive differentiation on a relative basis.

Relationship to other Services

There are two types of VAS. The first service type are those value-added services that stand alone from an operational perspective. These types of services need not be coupled with other services, but they can be. Many non-voice services fall into this category. They are often provided as an optional service along with voice services, but they could be offered and used by themselves without the voice service. For example, SMS could be offered and used as a service without voice calling.

The second, and arguably more numerous and important type of VAS, are those services that do not stand-alone. Instead, this category adds value to existing services. While it seems implicit in the definition of value-added, this is an important principle that makes value-added services stand apart from other services.

Value-added Services Examples

There are many services that could be considered "value-added". For discussion purposes, we will a few of these services below.

Push-to-Talk

Push-to-Talk (PTT) is a VAS because it:

• Drives additional revenue to the wireless carrier, but doe not cannibalize existing revenues
• Provides differentiated service offerings
• May be packaged with various other VAS such as MIM to provide even greater value

Call Management Services

This type of service can not stand alone as a service. Instead, it adds value to a core service by allowing the subscriber to manage incoming and/or outgoing calls. For example, value-added service interactions occur when the subscriber receives a call. Many call management services allow the subscriber to establish when, where, and under what circumstances they may be reached by calling parties. This provides value to the core service - voice communications - by way of increased control and flexibility.

Depending on the specific commercial situation, this value-added service could be offered as either a premium service (at a premium price) or be bundled with other the core service offering. The benefit of bundling would be to provide a differentiated core service and/or to increase the use of the core service.

Location Sensitive Billing

This is another example of a service that can not stand-alone. Instead, location sensitive billing (LSB) adds value to the core service by location enabling the core service. Location sensitive billing can be used in conjunction with post-paid, prepaid, and/or VPN based mobile communications services to establish zones for which differentiated billing treatment may be applied. For example, a "home zone", "work zone", and "premium price zone" could be established to allow an operator to offer differentiated service to its customers.

This is viewed as a value-added service to both the customer and the mobile operator. The customer benefits from LSB through his ability to use the mobile phone at preferred rates based on location. The wireless carrier benefits from incremental revenues derived from additional usage and from premium charge zones where there is already high demand and perhaps overly taxed system capacity. While the issue of potential cannibalization of existing service arises, customer behavior and studies indicate a net benefit derived from overall increased usage and revenues.

Taken together, call management services and LSB also depict characteristic number six, operational synergy. Call management services add value in terms of providing the user options depending on location. For example, the user may want to receive certain calls at the home zone, but not at work, and perhaps receive only urgent calls when traveling or on vacation. LSB provides the additional synergistic benefit of location based billing when the user is in those various locations.

Mobile Data Services

This is an example of a value-added service that does stand-alone. Mobile data services are considered value-added because they depict many of the characteristics discussed earlier.

• Does not cannibalize existing services
• Can be offered at a premium price
• Provides differentiation
• Can provide synergy with basic service

Largely due to the current state of mobile communications evolution, many non-voice services can be considered to be value-added. However, the extent to which additional value-added services can be layered on top of mobile data services will determine the limit of their value. For example, many non-voice services will have even greater value through personalization. Two of the most significant ways to personalize wireless services are through location enabling them and making them personal profile driven.

Mobile data services are utilized to obtain information, content, and to perform transactions. All of these activities are more meaningful if they are tailored to the individual. Location based services add value by way of putting the data into a location context for the user. Personal profiles further enhance the value through Personalization.

More Information

Read the book Wireless Intelligent Networking for more information about the core technologies that would enable mobile value-added services.