Voice calls open up new revenue stream for mobile cos

With mobile operators getting wary about messaging apps eating into their voice call earnings, Hike messenger says such services in fact can open a new ‘fat revenue stream’ for the full-fledged telecom firms.

Incidentally, Hike is run by Kavin Mittal, son of telecom czar Sunil Mittal, and is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s Softbank Corp. Bharti group also runs the country’s top mobile operator Bharti Airtel, which incidentally has been very critical of those offering free voice-over-internet calls and other such services, known in the telecom parlance as ‘Over The Top (OTT)’ players. “We believe that its not as big a threat as the market is making it out to be,” Hike messenger founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal said. “We believe that even if, let’s say voice minutes are cannibalised, if that happens, you are getting people to buy data packs, he said.