A value-added service (VAS) is a popular

telecommunications industry The telecommunications industries within the sector of information and communication technology is made up of all telecommunications/ telephone companies and internet service providers and plays a crucial role in the evolution of mobile communicat ...

{{cite web, url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11284640.htm, title=Global Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) Market: Worldwide Industry Share, Investment Trends, Growth, Size, Strategy And Forecast Research Report 2013, date=3 November 2013, work=PRWeb term for non- core services, or, in short, all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions. However, it can be used in any service industry, for services available at little or no cost, to promote their primary business. In the telecommunications industry, on a conceptual level, value-added services ''add value'' to the standard service offering, spurring subscribers to use their phone more and allowing the operator to drive up their average revenue per user. For mobile phones, technologies like

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

, MMS and

data access Data access is a generic term referring to a process which has both an IT-specific meaning and other connotations involving access rights in a broader legal and/or political sense. In the former it typically refers to software and activities relat ...

were historically usually considered value-added services, but in recent years SMS, MMS and data access have more and more become core services, and VAS therefore has begun to exclude those services. Mobile VAS services can be categorized into: * Consumer behavior VAS * Network VAS * Enterprise VAS A distinction may also be made between standard (

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

) content and premium-charged content. These are called mobile value-added services (MVAS), which are often simply referred to as VAS. Value-added services are supplied either in-house by the

mobile network operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sel ...

themselves or by a third-party value-added service provider, also known as a content provider such as All Headline News or

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

. Value-added service providers typically connect to the operator using protocols like Short message peer-to-peer protocol, connecting either directly to the short message service centre or, increasingly, to a messaging gateway that gives the operator better control of the content. Several other operators are approaching banking on possible revenue streams by building value-added services (VAS), which is generally available with rewards-based schemes.

Major value-added services

* Live streaming *

Location-based service A location-based service (LBS) is a general term denoting software services which use geographic data and information to provide services or information to users. LBS can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, indoor object search, en ...

s * Missed call alerts and

voicemail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...

box *

Mobile advertising Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing, mobile advertising can take place as text ads via SMS, or banner advertisements that appear embedded in a m ...

* Mobile money and

M-commerce The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless techno ...

based services * Mobile TV and

OTT Ott, OTT or O.T.T. may refer to: Entertainment * OTT (group), a pop band from the late 1990s * Ott (record producer), British record producer and musician * "O.T.T" (song), a song by Fugative * ''O.T.T.'' (television series), a UK TV programme f ...

services *

Ring tone A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...

s * Online gaming *

Ringback tone Ringing tone (audible ringing, also ringback tone) is a signaling tone in telecommunication that is heard by the originator of a telephone call while the destination terminal is alerting the receiving party. The tone is typically a repeated cade ...

(RBT and RRBT) *

chatting and dating premium services *

Infotainment Infotainment (a portmanteau of ''information'' and ''entertainment''), also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of in ...

services *

Stickering Sticker art (also known as sticker bombing, sticker slapping, slap tagging, and sticker tagging) is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment o ...

* WAP content downloads * Hello tune service

References

Telecommunication services