Vodafone will soon launch a video conferencing service on a pay-per-use model.
Companies will not have to invest in a video conferencing facility. Instead, they use a secure line provided by Vodafone and pay only for the number of hours they have used the service, according to Suphal Mehrotra, Head-National Corporate, Vodafone Business-Services.
The mobile service provider will provide end-to-end service, including the hardware, to facilitate the service, he told
Mehrotra said the service would help small and medium-size companies, which could not afford to spend Rs 10-20 lakh to set up a full-fledged video conferencing facility, he said.
Vodafone will provide the service on a hosted platform on the cloud and provide the bridge to enable the video conferencing. The service is still in the proof of concept stage, he said.
Mehrotra said the demand for mobile-related service from SMEs has increased substantially. They seek a similar kind of service provided to large companies, but at an affordable price.
Research say that the SME market for telecom service in India is estimated at Rs 10,500 crore and likely to grow at 8.1 per cent to Rs 16,800 crore by 2017-18.