A couple of weeks ago, prior to last weeks launch of 3G services by Reliance Communications, MediaNama spoke with Anil Pande, Head of Value Added Services for the telecom operator. During its earnings conference call, RCOM had announced the setting up of a 3G Innovation Lab, and over the last year or so, has launched Grameen VAS targeting rural consumers, done deals with Nokia (for music and Life Tools), Universal Music and GetJar (for Apps). In part 1 of this interview, Pande talks about the companys approach to 3G services, on deck versus off deck services, applications and rural services. MediaNama: RCOM has set up a 3G Innovation Lab? Anil Pande: Yes, there is a 3G innovation lab. It's a new avatar of the Dhirubhai Ambani Developer Programme, which we were the first to incubate in India in 2002. We started a program for building a community of developers, wherein we evaluated their apps, ran contests. The community extended from students, freelances, and software development companies, and expanded into companies providing infrastructure, aggregation and VAS marketing support. With 3G, the components added include in terms of device. It's an evolution of the his program. We have close to 4000 registered developers, and more than 95% of our apps is outsourced. MediaNama: What can we RCOM to focus on, on 3G services? Anil Pande: Emphasis will be on whatever is related to visuals and speed: video content, gaming and social networking. The focus will be on increasing data consumption, and there…
