Nokia to provide telecom services

Having ruled the market for over a decade, the world's largest handset manufacturer, Nokia, is shifting gear to reposition itself from being a device maker to a services and solutions provider in the wake of mounting competition from players like Apple and Research-in-Motion.

"Services is next big thing...We see people living their life 24x7 through applications on their mobile phones. Whether it is Twitter or Facebook, people live their life online," Nokia India Managing Director D Shivakumar told PTI when asked about the company’s future plans.

Nokia, one of the key developers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the second-generation mobile technology, is looking at providing various services and solution ranging from music downloads to games to financial services and information about prices and weather to the Indian farmers among many others.

The company has already inked a location-based service deal with social networking site Facebook. Under the deal, people could update their location and status directly to the social networking site via a Nokia Ovi account.

The company is also planning to enter the money market, with the launch of 'Nokia Money Service' -- offering basic financial services on mobile phones -- by next year.

"The service would enable consumers to send money, pay for goods, services and bills, and recharge their prepaid SIM cards using their mobile phone," Shivakumar said.