3G has been undervalued in India so far, but there are some sections of the market that might turn the tide
When you sell geared scooters in two colours and make pots of money on that, it is hard to believe that anyone would ever want to buy a motorcycle. When you sell packaged software at a premium that the whole world has to buy, it is hard to imagine that one day a rival that sells ads on its free email service could be as profitable.
A major reason for this is the fact that developers have to rely on piggybacking atop operator billing to charge money from subscribers. But with the RBI continuing to facilitate the expansion of mobile banking, the day where a developer could bill a consumer directly, and become independent of the operator’s billing, might not be far.
(This story appears in the 05 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)