July 7, 2009 | LteWorld - Mobile value-added services (VAS) are those services that are not part of the basic voice offer and are availed off separately by the end user. They are used as a tool for differentiation and allow the mobile operators to develop another stream of revenue.

Once operator start migrating towards LTE then what will be the shape of VAS? It would be interesting to see how current VAS infrastructure will be reused. VoLGA seems to be a bridging the gap during migration but what would be final implementation?

Currently Value-added services are supplied either in-house by the mobile network operator themselves or by a third-party value-added service provider (VASP). VASPs typically connect to the operator using protocols like Short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP), connecting either directly to the short message service centre (SMSC) or, increasingly, to a messaging gateway that allows the operator to control and charge of the content better.

VAS over data network might evolve in totally different form than today. Article Verizon Wireless is smart to facilitate developer community for LTE  suggests that LTE will be more about VAS applications and the need to have robust OSS/BSS systems to support them rather than just a bigger data pipe to sell more subscriptions and usage.