According to the latest research from the wireless network strategies service of Boston-based Strategy Analytics, the global mobile industry is on course for 2.5 billion subscribers by the end of 2006, and 3.5 billion by the end of 2010. In this report, called, "Worldwide Cellular User Forecasts, 2005-2010," the firm also predicts that the industry will generate US$800 billion in service revenues by the end of the decade.

The emerging markets have been contributing phenomenal levels of subscriber growth. In particular, Russia, India and Indonesia witnessed major growth in new users in 2005, up 40-50 percent over 2004 levels. The African nations, including Nigeria and Algeria, are "waiting in the wings" to become leading growth markets in 2006. These African countries will propel the worldwide cellular subscriber count to 2.5 billion before the end of the year.

The key trend in the industry is the coming of age of the 3G market. A U.S. Consumer Wireless Usage Study, says that more than half of wireless phone subscribers in the US -- 56 percent -- rely on their mobile phones for features such as cameras, clocks, calendars, messaging, music and as a substitute flashlight for seeing in dark places. Whether it's using location-based services to get driving directions, listening to streaming music or watching live TV, consumers are finding that the mobile phone is the one item they depend on most to stay connected and entertained.

The study further says that cameras remain popular with wireless users, with 55 percent expressing interest in the product. Showing further evidence of the interest in camera phones, 53 percent of camera phone owners take photos with their phone. The overwhelming majority of these "phone-tographers" use their camera phones for spontaneous pictures; nearly one-third take pictures at family gatherings or of their pets, while more than one-quarter snap pictures at celebrations or on vacation.

Indian Mobile Phone Market

In India, the mobile phone usage has been growing phenomenally so much so that the National Readership Study 2006 famously declares that mobile phones "must now be given their due place as media." The Study says that reach of this medium – as measured by the proportion of the population accessing value-added-features (VAS) at least once a week – has grown from 1.1% last year to 2.7% -- translating to nearly 22 million individuals.

According to the Study, 38% of mobile phone users access value added features like downloads, accessing news and cricket scores, SMS etc vs. 13.9% last year. The figure is higher at 44% in 42 metros. This means that as an advertising medium, mobile phone reaches more than 22 million consumers. As can be expected, the usage levels are much higher among young urban audiences. With the impending launch of 3G next year the quality of content that will be delivered to mobile subscribers will make it a force to reckon with.

Challenges of Mobile Phone Service Providers

However, thanks to the intense competition, the mobile operators and service providers face the challenges of declining average revenue per user (ARPU) and slowing subscriber growth. They are increasingly looking to new content services for a significant revenue boost. To be successful, however, mobile operators must solve a complex web of strategic, marketing, and operational issues.

As demand increases for wireless technology applications, ring tones, games, etc., the complexity of providing this content to a wide variety of devices across different regions and market segments creates a daunting challenge. Profitably delivering these new services requires new infrastructure investment and commitment to nurture and maintain a delicate ecosystem of content developers, service providers, and device manufacturers.

In the competitive business environment, the service providers are increasingly banking on the revenue potential of value added content services. Analysts estimate that the number of browser-enabled mobile devices will reach 1.5 billion by the end of 2007 and that there is an overall willingness on behalf of consumers to use value-added services on these devices.

Consumers are increasingly adopting a range of mobile services, thanks to new, feature-rich mobile devices that present these services in an attractive and easy-to-use manner.

The Need for Mobile Content Delivery System (MCDS)

MCDS enables mobile operators and service providers to launch, promote, and sustain profitable value added content services. A full-featured MCDS can be used to efficiently manage the complete content lifecycle - it streamlines application submission; tests, verifies, and manages content; matches content to appropriate devices; notifies subscribers of new content and upgrades; handles delivery; and tracks information for reporting and billing purposes. MCDS offers enhanced campaign features to market content directly to targeted users while supporting digital rights management.

MCDS can also be used to consolidate existing content services such games, and ringtones into a common infrastructure, or to replace homegrown or proprietary systems, ultimately lowering cost and complexity. Regardless of the use, by adopting MCDS, mobile operators and service providers can quickly achieve a positive ROI on mobile content download services, get new services to market quickly and cost-effectively, and better scale for the future.

• Increase ARPU by launching new mobile data services
• Reduce time, cost, and complexity deploying and operating content download services
• Increase customer loyalty and reduce churn

By controlling the complete content lifecycle, service providers can add, manage, download, and bill for virtually any type of wireless content.

Introduction to Vishwak MCDS:

Vishwak Solutions has gained vast experience in maintaining its clientele for maintaining the WAP Content Management System (WAP CMS). With this framework, Vishwak has come out with a robust system Vishwak MCDS that seamlessly integrates contents, devices, and the billing system.

Write Once, Customize as required, Implement and Maintain are the basic objectives with which Vishwak MCDS is developed. Vishwak MCDS provides tools for maintaining and monitoring content purchases, Customer care and billing and a solution that enables frequent database updates to quickly support new mobile devices for adaptive rendering.

Multiple Content Delivery:

Vishwak MCDS manages a wide variety of content types. It enables wireless delivery of multiple content types through a unique distributed download architecture. Unified mobile content delivery system lowers total cost of ownership, gets operators to market quickly, and improves subscriber satisfaction through choice.

With Vishwak MCDS the service providers can manage the entire content lifecycle, from submission and verification to listing and delivery. Operators can directly add support for new wireless content, legacy content, and other custom content types without interrupting existing services. Brings new content online to subscribers quickly and easily. Support for legacy content increases the subscriber base exponentially.

The Vishwak MCDS Admin Tools provides the required interfaces to upload products under various content types such as: Mono Tones, True Tones, Polyphonic Tones, Color Logs, Themes, Wallpapers, Animated Wall Papers, Videos, MP3, Games etc.

The Cost of Ownership

Vishwak MCDS provides operators with the vital components to manage the entire lifecycle of mobile content delivery, from content discovery and download to content management. The solution has been designed to fit with existing network infrastructure and integrate with legacy systems such as billing and customer support, all of which contributes to a lower total cost of ownership.

Operators can develop and deploy new content download services quickly, while at the same time attract content providers that can join forces to aggressively approach the mobile Internet market.

Hence Vishwak MCDS enables service providers to manage, market and bill for virtually any type of wireless content, while also providing an easier means for customers to access variety of contents.

Multi-level Category:

Vishwak MCDS supports multi-level categorization to handle various Content Types and its Products. With this, Operators can create and manage multiple categories of content -- "Top 10," games, financial, local, global, entertainment -- targeting specific interests and demographics. Categories can be multiple levels deep, and content can be listed across several categories. This capability allows operators to better classify the content, enabling subscribers to discover content with more ease.

Content Partner / Provider Management:

The system has Partner and Provider account management interfaces with which, any number of Partner or Provider accounts can be created and managed.

Each Partner or Provider can be defined either an Super Admin role or an Normal Admin Role that helps partners and providers to manage the Vishwak MCDS for both content uploading and configuring the products at various levels such product positioning, pricing, POD, etc.

Content Aggregation and Life-Cycle Management

Managing the complete content lifecycle can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming. The Vishwak MCDS can solve these challenges by streamlining the workflow from Product aggregation to verification to approval to listing to delivery.

With the Vishwak MCDS, operators can quickly and easily integrate large batches of content into a single a catalog from external content aggregators.

The Content Aggregator Interface provides a standard XML-based interface by which content can be loaded into an operator's catalog or registered and linked to an external URL.

The Vishwak MCDS provides secure and reliable delivery of all content in the catalog, whether it is physically stored in the operator's database or hosted externally at a third-party publisher or content aggregator.

Pick-of-the-Day Content Management

This specific feature will help the marketing arm to identify and mark the products that should be promoted to the subscribers at each content type.

Once there are certain products have been identified as POD, then the system would display those products either in the preview mode (if preview is available) or normal listing superseding the regular product listing.

This functionality may be defined for a specific day or can be defined for specific date range. When the subscriber views the product, the look and feel of the mobile pages would be different as per the POD and also would facilitate the Content Partner or Provider to promote their products effectively.

Device Profile Management

Vishwak would periodically, update the device profiling of all new devices that has been launched in the market. Device profiling is an important aspect that facilitates adaptive rendering.

Every device has its own characteristics such as picture resolution, audio and video MIME type supported, number of supported, no. of characters per line and so on.

Once all these characteristics has been defined, Vishwak MCDS’s Adaptive rendering module takes care delivering the right content to the right device.

Distributed Delivery

Vishwak MCDS’s framework enables the content to be priced, promoted, packaged, and distributed differently in order to address the different requirements of each subscriber segments.

Each content partner can be branded and connected independently to local network infrastructure components such as Subscriber database, SMS and WAP Gateways, billing system and so on.

By eliminating the need to deploy separate systems for each market, distributed downloading offers faster time to market, lowers cost, and simplifies integration.

Deployment and Integration with Telecom Operators

The architecture of the Vishwak MCDS enables a highly flexible deployment strategy. In order to offer more compelling data services, the Vishwak MCDS must be tightly integrated into the operators' network infrastructure. The open and configurable interfaces are designed to integrate easily into existing systems, reducing cost and time to market. Customizable adapters enable tight coupling with the operator's network infrastructure. It also monitors system status, performance, and availability, and provides this information to the operator's existing network management platform.

Administration and Reporting

Vishwak MCDS features comprehensive administrative functionality for dealing with content submission and approval, stocking, pricing, categorizing, managing subscriber and developer accounts, and providing customer care.

Billing - The system can be configured to communicate with an operator's billing system and work with third-party reporting applications. It can communicate in real time to perform authorization checks, pricing rules, and accounting transactions, or in batch mode by providing billing information through descriptive call detail records (CDRs).

Reports - Events from various components are collected and subscriber usage is tracked. This information is then compiled in a status report containing the number of content and application downloads, time of each download, and subsequent usage. These reports enable operators to study subscriber habits, monitor system performance, and create more effective marketing campaigns. The information is often given to content providers for content payment and settlement.

Performance and Scalability

Superior performance is essential in reducing cost and improving customer satisfaction. The Vishwak MCDS is built using .Net Framework 2 and has been tested to handle tens of thousands of transactions and delivers the contents in quick response, scalable, carrier-class platform that can help lower the cost of hardware, third-party software, system management, and customer care. Vishwak MCDS architecture removes the need for specialized software and increases the number of transactions per second.