Several technology companies and hardware manufacturers have been delivering GSM handsets for the developing world, costing about $30 per pop. And the results have far exceeded expectations, according to a data compiled by the GSM Association. The association’s emerging markets handset programme has found that mobile operators in emerging markets like India, Bangladesh, China and Russia have purchased over 12 million of its ultra low cost handsets (ULCH)

But the question is how many of the estimated three billion people in the world, who do not as yet have a mobile phone connection, can afford to buy a handset even at $30? Some estimates say that at least one billion people cannot afford the ULCH.

"The annual gross per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa is just $371. It is unrealistic to expect people there to spend 10 per cent of their annual income on a mobile phone. So, semiconductor vendors such as Texas Instruments, Freescale, Philips, and Infineon are continuing to reduce the bill-of-materials for ULCH even further, heading towards $20 and $15 in the next few years," says ABI Research, a technology research firm.

But will ULCH markets stall before a low enough price is reached? Says Mr Alan Varghese of ABI Research, "We may see trends similar to those for the conventional handset in the developed world. In the early years, it was purchased primarily to transact business; it was only when prices had dropped that handsets penetrated the mass market."

The firm says that something similar is starting to happen in the developing world. In South Africa, software vendor sharedphone enables the use of the ULCH as a mobile payphone. Local entrepreneurs buy this phone and sell airtime at the roadside. For such a "service provider", the $30 price is not prohibitive, it is far cheaper than setting up a conventional payphone.

What does this mean to handset vendors? "They have to think about how they can further enable varied uses such as the ‘mobile payphone’. They could add value, for example, with software to manage the whole transaction — making the call, presenting the consumer with a summary of call-times and charges and keeping track of repeat customers in order to offer discounts," Mr Varghese says.

While on mobile phones, the next big thing in mobile phones is not 3G, which is "no longer futuristic, but rather becoming widely available in markets around the world", nor is it 4G. What’s going to be big are mobile broadcast networks that can transmit high-quality video (25 to 30 frames per second of QVGA video) and CD quality audio channels to millions of mobile phones simultaneously.

Strengthening its infrastructure management services, Intelligroup Inc. has entered into a $24 million deal to provide IT operations support to Royal Greenland, the world’s largest supplier of cold-water prawns. Intelligroup will offer infrastructure and server management along with desktop support to the Nuuk (Greenland )-based company.

Announcing the deal here on Wednesday, Mr Vikram Gulati, president and chief executive officer of Intelligroup said, "It is a significant win for us as we will strengthen our presence in Europe, which is a key element of Intelligroup’s business strategy."

The Nasdaq-listed Intelligroup will employ its 24x7 onsite and offshore deliverzy model to execute its services to Royal Greenland, which has operations in Greenland, Norway, Germany and Poland, apart from sales offices in 12 nations in Europe, USA and Japan. The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals placed Intelligroup in the leader category in its "the global outsourcing 100" list. "We were able to get the recognition because of our focus on customer satisfaction... ," said Mr Alok Pant, vice-president (marketing), Intelligroup.

The company also inaugurated its new state-of-the-art facility here on Wednesday. "This facility has improved technology and IT operations rooms and re-organized client services teams that will enable us to meet and exceed the demands of our customers,’’ Mr Gulati said. Intelligroup’s Hyderabad facility houses 1,400 professionals.

Integrated digital cameras, FM radios and speakerphones continue to remain the features that are most likely to drive upgradation of mobile handsets this year along with MMS, the new entrant to this list, according to the IDC India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfaction Survey 2006.

The survey, the findings of which were released on Wednesday, said that features like tri-band, bluetooth, infrared port, among others. have also seen increasing demand, but are yet to develop any mass appeal. These value-added handset features are yet to become mainstream for all the existing handsets, though for a large proportion of handset users, some of these features are a "must" while buying their next handset.

According to Mr Parijat Chakraborty, general manager, IDC (India) Limited, this trend can be attributed to a "more for less" wave in the Indian consumer market. "The costs of these features in mobile handsets are coming down rapidly with competition and technological development. Therefore, the otherwise "advanced" features are becoming must haves for common cellphone users even if their regular needs and lifestyle do not justify these features." Features that are seldom used by the big majority of mobile phone users, such as Reminder, Scheduler, Organiser etc., have been observed to have lost their shine and saliency over time.

According to the study, Sony-Ericsson was at the top of the list of vendors in the handset user’s overall satisfaction, even though the brand has a very low overall market share. Nokia, LG and Samsung followed closely at the number 2, number 3 and number 4 spots respectively. However, the major handset brands have all witnessed improvements in their satisfaction scores compared to their ratings in last year’s (2005) study.

The study said that current mobile users are willing to spend on an average Rs 7,100 while buying the next handset, which is a shade below as compared to last year. "The average amount spent on the current handset is Rs 4,300; thereby an additional Rs 2,800 is likely to be spent while upgrading, a good news for mobile handset manufacturers," said Mr Shailendra Gupta, manager, user research, IDC (India) Limited.

The study also reveals some interesting facts on the mobile handset usage front. On an average, a mobile handset is used for less than one hour in a day for voice communication (incoming and outgoing calls), whereas it was more than an hour a year back. "Reduction in voice usage is due to an increasing number of subscribers being from low spending market segments such as workers and students," Mr Gupta said. However, the usage of the second most-commonly used service, SMS, has increased as compared to last year.

An average SMS user sends six messages in a day, while the number of messages received is slightly higher, at eight per day. This is due to a number of messages from mobile service providers giving information about various downloads like ring tones, bill-related information and various contests. The other reason is the messages received from public utility services such as banks, railways, airlines and others.