Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Free messaging apps will cost Indian telcos over $1B in 2013

<p>Indian telcos will lose billions of dollars in the next few years as users increasingly communicate with their friends via the OTT services.</p><p>Ovum analyst Neha Dharia told ZDNet that Indian mobile users were sending fewer text messages via their mobile carriers, and instead communicating for relatively no cost via messaging apps, which utilizes an Internet connection.</p><p>She said the trend cost Indian telcos US$781 million last year. It will cost US$1.2 billion this year and US$3.1 billion in 2016."We expect to see more such device and operator-led cooperation with social messaging players which will accelerate the growth of these apps in India. Along with this, the boom in smartphones and Internet-enabled phones will fuel the growth of messaging apps even further," Dharia said.</p><p>Indians subscribers only sent an average of 38 SMSes per month in the quarter ending December 31, according to the latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/in/free-messaging-apps-will-cost-indian-telcos-over-1b-in-2013-7000015272/">Keep reading...</a></p>

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