Nokia to provide telecom services now

"Services is next big thing...we see people living their life 24x7 through applications on their mobile phones. Whether it is Twitter or Facebook, people live their life online," Nokia India Managing Director D Shivakumar told PTI when asked about the company’s future plans.

Nokia, one of the key developers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the second-generation mobile technology, is looking at providing various services and solution ranging from music downloads to games to financial services and information about prices and weather to the Indian farmers among many others.

The company has already inked a location-based service deal with social networking site Facebook. Under the deal, people could update their location and status directly to the social networking site via a Nokia Ovi account.

The company is also planning to enter the money market, with the launch of 'Nokia Money Service' -- offering basic financial services on mobile phones -- by next year.
"The service would enable consumers to send money, pay for goods, services and bills, and recharge their prepaid SIM cards using their mobile phone," Shivakumar said.

To popularise this service, the company will build a wide network of "Nokia Money Agents" through whom the subscribers can deposit money or withdraw cash from their accounts.

The Nokia agents can be the Nokia's distribution person or the one selling mobile vouchers in the neighbourhood stores. Nokia has already tied-up with mobile payment company Obopay to offer such services.

Nokia had recently started a service for Indian farmers called Nokia Life Tools, which gives them access to relevant information, including weather reports and language translations, and has generated very good response from the users.

Nokia's competitor Apple provides the iPhone, while RIM offers Blackberry services.
Besides, Nokia is planning to commercialise its push email service -- Nokia Messaging -- in India by December this year.

Nokia is not the only company which is focusing on services. US-based handset maker Motorola has also launched new application such as Motoblur -- which allows users to synchronise their contacts, posts, feeds, messages, e-mails and photos from sources as diverse as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, corporate e-mail and have them appear on the device's screen.