NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which had issued a consultation paper on "Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS)" on 21 July 2011, has extended the last date for receipt of comments from stakeholders to 23 August and counter comments to 30 August.

This has been done on the request of some stakeholders who were not comfortable with the earlier dates of 12 and 19 August.

Quoting from the IAMAI report, Trai said entertainment had a share of 57 per cent compared to 39 per cent share for information and only four per cent for m-commerce.

Entertainment includes ringtones, music, contests, and voting games and so on. The total revenue from entertainment is Rs 67.6 billion. The revenue from information MVAS is around Rs 46.25 billion and from m-commerce a mere Rs 4.72 billion.

In its paper, Trai had sought the opinion of stakeholders on whether the current provisions under various licenses (UASL, CMTS, Basic and ISP) are adequate to grow the MVAS market to the desired level.

At the outset, the paper said with rapid technological developments, the mobile phone has evolved from a mere communication device to a smart phone with an ability to tap a plethora of information and services.

The services provided over a mobile phone today have moved beyond their fundamental role of voice communications to a range of value added services.

MVAS adds value to service, enabling the subscribers to use the mobile phone for a host of purposes like sending short messages (SMS), pictures, play games, listen to music, read news headlines, astrology, get flight information, surf Internet and mobile banking.

In addition to benefiting consumers, MVAS is likely to become a tool for additional revenues, service differentiation, and customer retention for telecom service providers. MVAS is expected to be the next wave for growth and a large chunk of revenue is expected to flow in from MVAS in the near future.