CRBT ( Caller Ring Back Tone) has been very successful in Mobile VAS (Value Added Service) industry ( specially in India, where it is said to generate almost 60% of the total revenue). There has been few discussions how CRBT will work when MNP ( Mobile Number Portability) is implemented in India. There has been few deadlines to implement MNP in India which were extended and now we have anew deadline of 31st October 2010 for its implementation.

What is MNP ?

Mobile Number portability ( MNP ) is a feature or facility using which a mobile phone user can change their network operator on choice or on requirement. For example, if a person takes telephone connection from Airtel in India, and after few months, (s)he wants to switch to Reliance, he would be able to that without having to change the mobile number. Without MNP, it is not possible to switch your operator even if you are dissatisfied with them for any reason.

Many unsatisfied users have to stick to its operator as changing phone number is not an option as it gets circulated over a period of time. So MNP offers them a solution.

Many people change cities and when they want to keep their old mobile number, thy have to pay roaming charges. MNP will be a solution for them.

How does MNP affect CRBT in India ?

In India, CRBT services are provided by third party ( normally VAS company) to the telecom operator. It has been a practice that, telecom operators have engaged only one vendor (A VAS company) for its CRBT services. BSNL ( Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Indian Government owned telecom service provider) has divided itself into four zones and it has engaged separate vendors.

Most of the CRBT implementation in India is IN-based, so technically the porting CRBT application to MNP may not be difficult. Also, when a CRBT subscriber changes its operator, it may want to retain his song/tone in his new operator too. Now some problems may come up,

1. The new operator may not have the same CRBT vendor of the old one. How will these two CRBT vendors exchange their subscriber details ?

2. The CRBT vendor of the new operator may not have the same song/music in its song collections.

But, in a multi-vendor scenario like in BSNL, these problems may be more difficult to tackle.

Technically, it may be possible to overcome these problems, but apart from technical issues, I think there are also commercial issues like subscription charges, billing cycle etc.

It will be interesting to know about effect on CRBT by implementing MNP in India. Easiest way might be, just discontinue the CRBT service in old operator and subscribe it again in the new operator!

I would like to have feedback, comments fro people in CRBT industry in India.

I attended VAS Asia 2010 held today in New Delhi. While writing my previous post about widely used IVR systems in India, I put IVR for Value Added Service at the top. If the overwhelming presence of CTI board manufacturers with stalls and two IVR platform provider any indication, then we are surely seeing some boom in IVR VAS in India! Incidentally, the last year too, there were many CTI board manufacturers in the same exhibition!

VAS Asia 2010 Conference

Incidentally, I could not find any stall of any big VAS companies except few like NetxCell, Spice Mobile. The big names in Indian VAS like OnMobile, IMI Mobile, Hungama Mobile etc. were not there! Content Developing companies VAS Application developer( one of fellow visitor asked me, “if I could suggest him any VAS content provider”)!
Nuance had big stall, and it is going to replace OnMobile ( which was principal sponsor for this VAS exhibition for last three years) as principal sponsor for next year.

Many CTI board manufacturer were there, I collected many visiting cards with interesting designations. One of the designation marketing manager of a CTI baard manufacturer’s business card reads designations like Sr. BDM Telecom and VAS ( Looks like, whole of CTI market in India is shifting towards IVR VAS only!).

Apart from Dialogic and Donjin, The following CTI board manufacturers were present :

1. Sangoma

Sangoma CTI Boards

Synway Stall at VAS Asia 2010

3. EastCom

EastCom - High Density Telecom Boards racks

4. Audio Codes

AudioCodes Stall

Interestingly, there were not many IVR platform providers except ExtendIVR and Telesoft Technologies! Telesoft launched its IVR platform for VAS industry. Aculab, I think whose CTI boards are most suited for voice portals, was not present!

ExtendIVR - Indian IVR Platform

Telesoft IVR platform

1. The session started with rosy picture of Indian VAS industry with a lecture from Mr. Arbind Rao of OnMobile ( which was the principal sponsor for the event) telling us that Indian VAS industry launches new services/products much faster than its European counterparts! He also informed that people whose mobile balance is Rs. 10(Approx US$0.22) at any point of time, VAS companies should sell them CRBT subscription per day basis! The present VAS market volume is Rs. 15000 crore ( more than US$3bn), likely to reach Rs. 70,000 crore by 2015 and Rs. 100,000 crore by 2020!
The next speaker Mr. Rakesh Mahajan, VP – Marketing & Business Head – VAS & Incubation, Airtel brought everyone on ground by asking, there are many products, services but how about the quality ? Answer to ‘what’ is not more important than ‘how’, he opined!

2. Lack of participants from core VAS companies ( though many were sponsors for the event) may be an indicator that not all is well in VAS industry in India and many admitted in private, VAS market is no longer booming in India! Nuance replacing OnMobile as principal sponsor for the next VAS Asia conference does not give out good signal about VAS Industry in India either!

3. Few specific issues like revenue sharing between telecom operator and VAS companies which is heavily tilted towards telecom companies ( Many claim it is now only 15% for VAS companies and for some unique and exclusive services it may be 35%) were not discussed or non raised, though Mr. Arbinda Rao raised something like, VAS companies should be given tax exemption by the government! No wonder low cost CTI manufacturers are present in big number in the conference!

4. Almost all speakers talked about using VAS in new areas ( eco-system as they called), like health, medicine, agriculture, targeting rural population in India. Also one speaker spoke about S Curve, saturation point!

Overall, it was good to be in the conference!

CRBT (Caller ring back tone), also popular as “Hello Tunes” in India, has generated almost 25% of total VAS ( Value Added Service) revenues. This kind of revenue pattern is same worldwide where CRBT has been a major revenue earner for any telephone service provider in its VAS portfolio.

So, what is the next of CRBT ?

If one observes closely about this music or song in mobile industry, one will observe certain trends. Here is how it worked.

Ring tone :
First, popular songs were used a ring tone which was played in the mobile handset as soon as any incoming call came. Not too distant in the past, it was a major revenue source for all involved in it, music producer, Mobile Phone service provider and VAS provider. But with lowering cost of high end mobile phone with MP3 players, and Blue Tooth enabled Mobile phone with easy computer connectivity has almost wiped out Mono Ring Tone from the market. Now, mono ring tones are heard only in very low cost mobile handsets.


RBT ( Ring Back Tone):
Once, Ring Tone revenue was going down, CRBT ( Caller Ring Back Tone) came along! Though the technical term remained RBT ( Ring Back Tone), it was christened with various names in India by various mobile operators, like Hello Tunes, Caller Tunes, PRBT ( Personalised Ring Back Tone) etc. In CRBT, a song was played to the caller by the called party and the called party could configure which song to be played. The called party could even configure specific song for specific phone number based on caller id detected.

So, song used to play on the handset, heard the handset owner in incoming call and could be configured by the handset owner. It graduated to be played on incoming call, but heard by the caller, configured by the called party ( equivalent of the handset owner), now the phone number owner! The caller has not control on the song or music he listens as RBT!

So the next generation CRBT is, listening to music as per your choice while you are calling a phone number! Technically, its implementation is same though!

UPDATE : Tata Docommo in India is already providing this kind of service where caller listens to a song every time hi makes an outgoing call as per his choice. It is powered by ‘Reverse CRBT’ from OnMobile, major VAS company in India.

Voice based value added service is known as voice portal. This is good revenue source for both mobile and land line telecom companies. Just like SMS Portal, voice portal also provides similar services but accessed through IVR. With advent of voice enabled menu using speech recognition technique, IVR has become very popular as well as user-friendly application for both mobile and land line subscribers.
IVR can be thought as platform to deliver content to users. The content may be anything, from latest news to mobile ring tone. I have written about Technical challenges and commercial challenges in a voice portal in my previous posts. IVR as content delivery platform has advantage:-

1. Its is easy to dial using the keypad while SMS is not easy to type on mobile phones.
2. Few contents are better delivered on IVR. For example, ring tone can be heard on IVR before it is downloaded by user.
3. It is limited by number of characters like in SMS. For example, complete news can be heard on IVR. Same goes for other contents like jokes, breaking news, etc.
4. IVR can be used by any kind of mobile phone instrument. Other content delivery platform like WAP does not work on low cost mobile phones. SMS does not work on many land line telephone instruments. It may be a major factor in a price sensitive market like India where maximum mobile subscribers use low cost handsets. India is a huge mobile market with more than 400million mobile subscribers.

Here I would like to list few services which are popular in India:-

1. Listening to Music
I find it amusing that people listen to music on mobile phone in this era of Ipod, FM Radio etc.! The main reason is, FM is available in major cities in India. The initial investment is high for many Indians for IPod or MP3 players. But many IVR VAS players in India has provided option to listen unlimited songs with a monthly subscription of paltry Rs. 30.
2. Astrology
3. Contests
4. Jokes
Yes, people do hear jokes on IVR!
5. Shayeri
This is an interesting application for IVR VAS.

CRBT (Caller Ring Back Tone) is a very popular IVR application used in Telecom Industry. It is known as “Hello Tunes”, “Caller Tunes” in India. CRBT is a fairly simple IVR system which has a smart call routing and a IVR application which plays one audio file, a music as per choice by the CRBT subscriber. CRBT is one of the highest revenue earner for Telecom companies in voice based value added service (VAS) all around the world.

CRBT can also be used as very useful, targeted advertising tools where the IVR software will play an ad jingle instead of a number for chart topper, or a old hit. The ad jingle to be played can be chosen by the following criteria:
1. Caller Id : Since IVR application will know both the caller number and called party number, it can choose ad jingle based on the caller ID. For example, if the caller id is an land-line number, a ad jingle related to land line facilities should be played. When caller ID is a Airtel land line number, why not play a internet facilities available on Airtel land-line number ?
2. Area of Caller ID : Area of caller can be decided based on the caller id. In case the caller ID is a mobile number, first 4 digits of the caller ID will determine the area of the caller. And if the caller id is a land line number, the first 3 digits which is a STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) code which denotes an area. So, using this information, the ad jingle can be chosen.
3. Telecom Operator Wise : From the caller id and the called party ID (DNI, Dialed Number Identification), Telecom operator can be found out. Advertisement can be targeted by Telecom Operator too. For example, all BSNL caller would be played about 3G availability on BSNL network!
4. Integration with Billing Server : If IVR Server or CRBT Server is connected to billing server, than high paying customers, prepaid customer, post paid customer can be identified and accordingly ad jingles can be targeted.

Advantages of CRBT advertisement :
Advertising on CRBT is new. But it is obvious that there are certain advantages of CRBT advertising. It can be very targeted advertising. The advertiser would know exactly how many times ad jingles has been played and to whom. He would be able calculate his conversion rates.

I think CRBT advertisement would pick up in India soon. There are people who are experimenting on it. But we are still to see wide scale adoption of this advertisement platform.

As I wrote once about making money with IVR Software, I have finally decided to write what IVR applications can be used to generate monthly revenue. Till recently, IVR Application or IVR Software was thought to be used only for increase in efficiency, reduce cost, automatic complaint management etc. Not any more! There are now IVR applications which are mostly used to generating revenue!

There are many IVR Applications in many industries, but the use of IVR Software in Telecom Industries is quite interesting! And this is where you make regular money. The most widely deployed IVRS Software for making money are :

1. Voice Portal
2. CRBT or PRBT

1. Voice Portal
Voice portals started as a premium service for quick access of information. According to various sources, it first appeared in 1999 in line with internet web portal.
With the advent of mobile phone, there was surge in value added service. This is when Voice Portals also got a push by telecom service providers.
Normally, voice portals are operated by a value added service provider (VAS) companies like Niche Tech Services (P) Ltd, or OnMobile in collaboration with a telecom service provider on revenue sharing basis. Normally, any call made to voice portal is charged premium. Voice portals provides various information, news, entertainment etc. The revenue model goes like this :
1. Per call is charged premium at Rs. 6 per minute of usage
2. Revenue is shared between telecom services provider and the VAS service provider. Revenue sharing is heavily tilted towards telecom service provider in India while it is opposite in some countries like China.
3. Billing is done monthly by the VAS Operator to telecom service provider.Telecom service provider charges mobile user in their telephone bills.

One telecom service provider can have many voice portals catering to many niche markets. The voice portal market is still growing and there are scopes for new players!

2. CRBT or PRBT
CRBT ( Caller Ringback Tone) is also known as PRBT( Personalised ring back tone.). This is nothing but an IVR Application as I explained earlier too. It also started quite recently in 2000 only! The increase in usage and popularity of CRBT is largely due to increase in Mobile Telephony and marketing by Mobile telephony provider.
CRBT has been very popular all over the world. Specially in South Korea, China and India. The revenue model is little different than voice portal. CRBT is again provide normally by a VAS operator to a telecom service provider. Here is the revenue model:

1. A subscriber is charged a monthly rental for using the CRBT service. Normally it is small amount like Rs. 30/- a month.
2. Subscriber can change CRBT tone by calling up a Voice Portal Number, add specific ring tone or song for a specific caller according to caller id. Each change is charged Rs. 15.
3. It does not charge for playing the ring tone for every call.
4. Revenue is shared between VAS operator and telecom service provider.
5. Since it uses songs, there may be a revenue sharing with music producers too.

Normally, one telecom service provider can not have more than one VAS operator for CRBT due to its technical setup. The market is still growing and big. There are still scope for new players, specially in India.

Apart from these two IVR Applications, I believe both Voice SMS, Outbound IVRS and UMS(Unified Messaging Service) are other IVR application which can be used commercially to make money. I will write more about them in future.

Special Disclaimer : The prices given above are just a number to give an idea of charging subscribers. It should not be taken as absolute fact.