3G becomes useful....Finally !

Cellular operators > Increase 3G subscriptions and increase revenue !

3G, a way to send and receive data on the cellphone has been around for sometime, intially touted as the way to access the Internet on the cellphone, but a lot of users use a phone only for voice calls (the die hard voice users), these are the users the carrier needs to get started on 3G. 3G is now in the mainstream with the iphone, but voice users do not care. How does a carrier make them care ? How does the carrier get these users started on 3G and them get them hooked on more services.

As carriers struggle to increase revenue, increasing the number of 3G users is a simple way to increase average revenue for user (a metric the carrier uses to measure the amount of money they make per user). The users are already in the network, they just need a compelling reason to use 3G.

The compelling reason for 3G (Insurance):
Losing a cellphone, usually meant losing all your contacts and getting a new cellphone also meant losing your contacts, or at least laborious re-entry of your contacts. Avoiding this pain-called-contact-pain, meant that you needed to backup your contacts on the PC. You would do this by connecting your cellphone and PC by IR, cable or Bluetooth and use proprietary software provided by the phone manufacturer to backup your contacts. This also implied you need to be
(1) PC savvy and be
(2) able to connect up your phone using IR/Bluetooth/Cable to the PC, ensure that the PC has IR/Bluetooth or the cable ($)
(3) ensure that your PC does not die on you,
(4) be prepared to do a lot of work.

The simpler way to backup your contacts and calendar entries is to use SyncML (which is built-in on most phones, think of it as a data sync feature)  , 3G and a free SyncML based backup web service like zyb.com (more on how to backup your phone here). This does away with the productivity loss of setting up your PC and provides you with the additional benefit of backing up anytime (that means unlike a PC based backup, you get a better recovery experience since you can backup more often and recover more of your data).

The simpler way to backup your contacts and calendar entries is to use SyncML (which is built-in on most phones)  , 3G and a free SyncML based backup web service like zyb.com* (more on how to backup your phone here). This does away with the productivity loss of setting up your PC and provides you with the additional benefit of backing up anytime (that means unlike a PC based backup, you get a better recovery experience since you can backup more often and recover more of your data).

Win-Win (keep to the limited bandwidth 3G plan):
I think this is one of the few instances that both the cellular operator and the user wins. The operator gets the 3G subscription and the user gets his contacts. I think die-hard voice only users will also be attracted to this.

Oh, but how much does it cost, the cost is present as the data transmitted over 3G. Lets assume that a name is about 15 characaters and a phone number about 15 characters, that make it 30 characters and a SyncML overhead of 50%, that makes it 45 characters. That is 45 to 50K of traffic for about 1000 contacts. That leaves you with a lot of bandwidth for multiple backups. So choose the limited bandwidth option or pay as you go option, backup often and don't use other data applications. I am sure the die-hard voice only users will agree.

How does a carrier sell 3G:

3G = Insurance = Backup contacts and calendar entries = Peace of mind !
See the the 3G promo made for a cellular operator in Bangalore, India.