The teleuse@BOP finding that mobiles have overtaken radios at the bottom of the pyramid in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh continues to resonate. In coverage of this story the leading Indian magazine in the IT space Voice and Data reveals that even AM reception is being offered in some Indian phones, in addition to the standard FM capability.
Industry experts say it is an obvious phenomenon, with handsets turning in to a swiss-knife kind of solutions. Rural mobile penetration is now the focus of the service providers in these countries where the mobile markets are heading towards maturity.
In India circles like Chennai are touching near 100% mobile penetration in that case the operator has to go to new markets. The mobile is fast becoming a one-stop-shop solution. And the manufacturers are building products on applications that click with the buyer and these rewards are resulting in rewards as big as over 10 mn handsets sold every month.
Interestingly, earlier the market was inundated with FM chipset handsets, which were largely of interest to those living in urban cities. The users look for value for money, any manufacturer that can not realize the needs of his potential buyer will not survive.
Tata Teleservice’s ‘Radio Phone’ is a respite for a user in the area that does not have an FM radio. The model is the first of its kind in India that can access Am radio services and also among CDMA phones in the world. This enables telecom users in rural and semi-urban locales to listen to radio services.
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