Mobile Servies

As technology unleashes bandwidth and ease of delivery and interoperability capabilities, previously

non-existent new business models are generated and those old or existing ones are rejuvenated. For

example, previously click-to-talk technology was considered a niche business. However, rethinking

of this is expected in the light of developments such as the partnership among Google, US service

provider VoIP Inc, and mobile operators in China. TelecomAsia reports that mobile operators in

China who use Google for their mobile searches will soon have a simple way to purchase goods

and contact merchants. This is seen as an expansion from the new service launched in US early 2007

whereby US web users of Google Maps application can make free click-through calls to merchants

and retailers that come up in search listings.

In the US, users type their phone numbers and press the "call" prompt on the website listing to

contact a specific merchant. Within a second or two, VoIP Inc's network calls the customer who

answers this call and then hears the telephone connection being made to the retailer, who answers

it like any regular call. The sweetener to this is that there is no cost to the customer as the call is

routed through VoIP Inc's network. The report said that the technology works on any platform.

Google is offering similar click-through services in the UK, Germany and Japan with expansion into

France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, India and Australia.

MOBILE SERVICE SCENARIO IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia embraced mobile cellular services in mid 1980s. Its popularity grew to eventually the

number of subscribers for mobile cellular surpassing that of fixed line in 2000. The fixed-mobile

substitution advances even today. However, mobile penetration rates are levelling off, and operators

are shifting focus and approach from customer acquisition to customer retention, as well as to

ramping up revenues per subscriber by driving up data usage.