Applications in tele-services

Tele-services are services delivered to users at a distance using telecommunication networks together with multimedia. They allow people to get services without being physically present.

Main tele-services

1. Telephony and videophony: voice and video calls, voicemail, VoIP, video calls.
2. Teleconferencing / video conferencing: group meetings across locations with audio, video and data sharing.
3. Telemedicine: remote diagnosis, consultation, and monitoring of patients.
4. Tele-education / e-learning: lectures and training delivered to remote students.
5. Telebanking and e-banking: mobile and internet banking, ATMs, digital wallets such as eSewa and Khalti, with multimedia interfaces.
6. Teleshopping and e-commerce: browsing products with images and video, and ordering online.
7. Telework (teleworking): working from home with network access and conferencing.
8. Telemetry and tele-monitoring: remote measuring, such as weather, security cameras (CCTV) and smart meters.
9. Tele-information services: teletext, videotex, online news, directories and e-government services such as online forms and tax filing.
10. Teleconsulting and customer support: call centres and chat support with screen sharing.
11. Entertainment services: video on demand, internet radio, online games.

Requirements: reliable high-speed network, compression, security and privacy of data, user-friendly interfaces, and billing.

Benefits: saves time and travel, reaches remote areas, available all the time, and reduces cost. Example: a villager in a remote district consults a city doctor by video call and pays the bill through a mobile wallet.