siliconindia | | November 20178IN MY OPINIONI ndia is a country on the fast track to digitization and the Applications are acting as a driver for exploiting the potential of the latent demand in the 1billion strong economy. App Annie recently ranked India as the fourth largest app economy in the world. Not only these applications play a disproportionately important role in India, they also help overcome the inadequacies of physical infrastructure. These applications bundle communication needs in one place offering rich interaction with pictures, videos or recorded voice/video messages. Hence, Rich Interaction Applications (RIAs) cover nearly the full range of common internet activities. These services offer added value for consumers by significantly reducing transaction, search and information costs. The most comprehensive RIA can feature up to 23 functions. Generally, an RIA has almost nine functions and is far richer than a conventional telecom service. It is misleading to use the term Over the Top (OTT) for the Applications popularly used for personal and business interaction. It would be more apt to call them RIAs or New Generation Applications (NGA) as they enable con-sumers to interact in ways not possible through traditional communications channels, using features such as group chat, photo and video sharing. While RIAs are not only richer, there are other sig-nificant differences between a RIA and conventional telecom services. To suggest that there is a natural parity or similarity between RIA Service Providers and Tele-com Service Providers (TSPs) is perhaps flawed. The latter enjoys several exclusive rights conferred on them through their licenses that are not enjoyed by RIAs. In India, these include the right to acquire spectrum, the right to obtain numbering resources, the right to intercon-nect with the PSTN, and the right of way (RoW) to set up infrastructure. IN MY OPINIONNEWGEN INTERNET APPS ­ RICH & INTERACTIVE By TV Ramachandran, Hon. Fellow of IET (London) & President, Broadband India Forum Headquartered in New Delhi, Broadband India Forum is dedicated telecommunications forum that acts as a bridge between Industry and Government regulatory bodies through coordination, promotion and formulation of expert opinion on topical subjects related to the Broadband.
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