By Telecom
Lead Team: Location Based Services (LBS) require massive investments by the
operators for its deployments, and the government’s monetary help can give it
wings.

 

Monetary
hurdles are hindering the effective deployment of LBS, as consumers want
everything but without any expenditure. We can tackle to the problems if govt.
subsidizes us on monetary basis. Government needs to encourage competition
rather than regulating it,” said Rajan S Mathews, director general of COAI
during LBS India 2012.

 

The main
obstacle in the effective deployment of LBS in India is the monetary issue, as
it requires massive investments. LBS haven’t taken off in Indian market, but it
could be the most happening app in India with the 3G and mobile broadband
networks.

 

The other
reason behind the slow deployment of LBS is the reluctance among the customers
to pay money for value-added services. Also, concern over privacy is another
issue, which makes consumers to discard the service.

 

We as service
providers have to ensure that the information is secured and is not misused. To
successfully deploy the service, we require to minimizing CAPEX, deploy
adequate technology in CDMA and define the target group for LBS apps,” said
Rajesh Gandhi, AVP VAS technologies & enterprise solutions, TATA
Teleservices.

 

Operators are
optimistic about the growth of LBS.  Rajesh Gandhi of TTSL said that
factors including network based technologies, consumers’ need for LBS, app
development ecosystem, regulatory mandate and accessibility of high end
handsets will drive the growth of LBS in India.

 

The day is
not far when major segment of the society will become dependent on LBS. And to
make that happen along with meeting the mandate directions given by DoT, we
need huge investments after which sky would be the limit for LBS,” said SC
Sharma, ITS, general manager-VAS & TF, BSNL.

 

LBS is a $20
billion potential value market and 70 percent of people say that they use services
like navigation, alerts etc.

 

C S Rao,
president- corporate affairs & regulatory of Reliance Communications said
that industry need to navigate itself to find out best consumer and then
navigate to give them best services. Additionally operators need a right amount
of spectrum to give users best service.

The operators
feel that the main problem in LBS deployment is intra-circle limitations.

 

A.K Bhargava,
ED of MTNL said that there is a need of third party, who can establish
infrastructure.

In India, we
have an infrastructure which is not secure in wake of changing future
requirements. With the mobile phone enabling legal agencies to locate
individuals and events it is necessary for government, service operators and
DoT to enter into workable arrangements and protocols to fix legal onus to
prevent avoidable legal complications to dog service providers,” Bhargava
added.

 

By Danish Khan
[email protected]