Pagers Are Here To Stay
The growth of the Indian pager market has been very encouraging for the paging operators. In 1995, the very first year of launch itself, more pagers were sold in India than in the US in the first 15 years. Paging operators are ubeaat about the future growth of the business.
Dilip Pall, Senior Vice-President (marketing,) Mobilink, spoke recently about the Indian paging services market and the future scenario. Experpts from the interview.
The two mobile communication systems, the pagers and cellular phones, were introduced in India fairly simultaneously. But pagers managed to reach more people. What could be the reasons?
It is true that pagers have managed to make a better impact in the market compared with other mobile communication systems. The main advantage is the cost factor.
The price is fixed irrespective of the number of messages that one receives. No other mobile communication system is cheaper than the pagers. Second is the communication flexibility that pagers give to the users. It gives one the freedom to respond to the calls at will, whereas the case with cell phones is not so. It also gives you the convenience of receiving a message without disturbing others.
And now with more and more value-added services being added, the users will be more benefitted. In many other countries the paging and cell phone operators have joined hands. The interface between the paging operators and cellphone operators are needed, and I think it is only a matter of time..
Mobilink was among the first to introduce pagers to the Indian market. What were the challenges that you had to face in the beginning to create a market for pagers?
Paging, was a new concept to Indian customers. People were not aware of the benefits and utilities of paging. The first challenge was to create an awareness, which indeed was a big task. Due to their constant efforts, the paging operators could create a market for them in India. The second problem we faced was that, in India, all the modern communication gadgets, such as pagers, cell phones, e-mail and radio trucking, came in almost simultaneously.
This created a certain amount of confusion among the potential customers about the right choice. It was more in the case of a decision between a cell phone and a pager as these are the two mobile communication systems among the latest to enter the Indian market. People were confused about their choices.
They were not aware of which service will fit into their requirement. So they took their own sweet time to make a decision in the initial period.
The delay showed by the people, in turn, affected the industry. There were certain issues with the department of telecommunication (DoT) in the beginning and now that has also been solved. Now the situation has changed, a potential market has been developed, awareness has been created among the people. And, I think that this is the best opportunity for the Indian paging operators to establish themselves in the market.
How would you describe the Indian pager market?
Indian pager market is a very potetial one. In the future, the number of pagers is going to be very high.
We expect the volumes to touch four-five million by the turn of the century. The recent introduction of the high-speed technology will help boost the market and will improve the quality of service.
What are the value-added services that are introduced since the introduction of pagers.?
Variety of value-added services are added to the Indian market since the introduction of pagers to the Indian market And today we have services like voice mail, information services, roaming facility, call transfer facility, personalized paging, group paging and secretarial services. In the future many other such thing will be introduced.
Indian pager market is a very potetial one. We expect the number of pagers in the country to touch four-five million by the turn of the century. The recent introduction of the high-speed technology will help boost the market
Dilip Pall, Senior Vice-President (Marketing,) Mobilink,