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The Mumbai chapter of Mobile Monday organised a meet-up on 28th April 2008 in the city where the participants discussed issues related with ‘Voice-based VAS’. The discussion was moderated by VeerChand Bothra, founder, MobilePundit.com. The other members of the panel were Mitul Limbani, CEO, Enterux Solutions and Aditya Mhatre, co-founder, Indicast.com.

According to Limbani, “one can use open-source software like Asterisk to build an interactive IVR system for approximately Rs. 1.2 lakh”. He also said that telecom operators like Reliance and Airtel (in Tamil Nadu) have started using voice-based IVR solutions to increase VAS revenues by using regional languages. Due to this localised content, operators have started generating revenues even from the smaller cities and towns by selling VAS services like ringtones, jokes, astro predictions, etc in the local language. When asked about the scalability of Asterisk, Limbani answered that it is very scalable and he is using the software to develop a back-end for an Indonesian telecom provider. He concluded by saying that voice-based IVRs allow multilingual content to be accessed on inexpensive phones and are the way to go for the Indian market.

Mhatre spoke of 022-67339733, an IVR being created for Indiacast.com, a popular Indian podcasting website. When asked about what features could be added to the IVR, Mhatre mentioned that in the future, users will be able to browse podcast episodes, personalise the IVR based on their preferences and enable resume support if the call drops mid-way.

Mobile Monday, is an open networking event for mobile industry professionals to share and discuss ideas. It is normally held on a selected Monday evening every month. It has chapters in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai apart from other cities around the world.