Tata Docomo To Offer SIM Based Chatting, Wallpapers, Banking

Tata Docomo seems to be on a roll, launching new services, acquiring customers by the millions and making life a tad difficult for other mobile operators. The company has now expanded its services by partnering digital security firm Gemalto to offer SIM based services and apps: mobile banking, mobile chatting, information on demand, wallpapers, games etc. Most telcos offer access to content on what is called the SIM toolkit, which is an applications menu stored on the telco SIM card.

In case of Docomo, the service will support Hindi and English and the user will be asked for his preference when activating the service. The service will also remember user preference and choices so that the user gets preferred content as real time updates. According to the company, if a user selects an ongoing cricket series as an option, then he will receive all related content on his mobile without having to stream the news from the menu service tab.

(Also read: Tata DoCoMo Gives Free GPRS For Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz & LinkedIn)

Gemelto already works with operators in the Middle East and Africa. In Middle East they provide financial services for du and Etisalat, and have deployed services in Pakistan and Iran and are looking at 5 more deployments including deployments in Dubai and Egypt. In Africa Gemelto has presence in Nigeria and Uganda. Recently in the Mobile World Congress, 2010 held in Barcelona,MTN Middle East and North Africa selected Gemalto’s SIM based security solution to launch mobile financial services in five countries.

Tata Teleservices, (Tata Docomo is its GSM service) has rapidly been adding subscribers. The company added 2.98 million connections in January and now has a total number of over 60 million connections pan India. It has added more customers than any other operator for the past 6 months. They own the brand Virgin Mobile in India and they have also recently tied up with Future Group to launch a GSM service Talk 24. What next for TTSL?