MNP: A catalyst for VAS growth?

In the last few months the Indian telecom industry has been abuzz with news of 3G, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and BWA. This has led to lot of excitement and hope among the players in the telecom ecosystem about these services.
On one hand, operators are expecting greater customer retention due to an improvement in the quality of their services while content providers are looking forward to a greater demand for advanced value added services (VAS).
Even the telecom equipment companies are expecting an increase in revenues owing to the need for equipments for faster roll out of 3G services.
While roll out of 3G services has already started, MNP is expected to see the light of the day on November 25.
MNP has generated a lot of interest amongst stakeholders and the popular view is that its implementation will also give a boost to the uptake of VAS.
With MNP the customers will get freedom to change their service providers without changing their numbers, VAS is being viewed by operators as a differentiating factor which can help them grow and sustain in an competitive market.
From the point of view of established operators, VAS will serve as a subscriber retention tool; while for newer entrants, it will become a part of the marketing strategy to attract customers.
If VAS providers leverage these opportunities to tie up with operators, there could be a major increase in the uptake of their services.
MNP is also expected to make VAS providers a stronger player in the ecosystem, with an increase in demand for exclusive and innovative mobile content which will be quite evident after the roll out of 3G.
Nitish Mittersain, chief operating officer, Nazara Technologies, believes that MNP will have a positive impact on VAS. He says, "VAS will be a differentiating factor for operators. They will have to provide differentiating services which will make VAS players a bit more important in the value chain."