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Next Generation PreTUPS™ Platform Delivers Anytime, Anywhere Prepaid Top-Up
Comviva, announced that its next generation PreTUPS™ electronic top-up platform has been selected by Vodafone Egypt to deliver e-recharge services to the operator’s 24.6 million subscribers (March 2010).
Comviva’s PreTUPS™ will empower Vodafone’s customers in Egypt to top-up their talk-time with any value, anytime and anywhere. PreTUPS™ will extend prepaid service reach, by improving access, convenience, and service delivery to new and existing customers. PreTUPS™ will also extend service to Vodafone Egypt’s postpaid customers by enabling them to pay their mobile bill via the operator's network of authorized channel members.
Commenting on the alliance, Sherif Bakir, Head Of Marketing Services, Vodafone Egypt, said “Our alliance with Comviva brings added-value to our business and we are excited about the greater convenience, flexibility and simplicity we will be delivering to our customers with PreTUPS™.
We are also confident that Comviva’s PreTUPS™ will enable improved access to mobile services, via the varied denominations on offer and the improved delivery and distribution of traditional voucher-based products. By providing diverse, easy-to-use and accessible top-up solutions to our customers, we will be able to increase our market penetration.
Our customers will no longer need to visit retailer outlets to top-up their accounts, as PreTUPS™ will enable top-up from practically anywhere.”
Speaking on the occasion, Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Comviva said, “Our PreTUPS™ solution has received overwhelming acceptance from operators and subscribers in emerging markets, with millions of mobile prepaid subscribers now enjoying the ability to top-up their accounts with any amount.
We have successfully deployed our next generation PreTUPS™ prepaid solution for over 25 leading mobile operators across the globe.”
Comviva is a world leader in the provision of prepaid solutions, with its PreTUPS™ platform and suite of applications handling over 33 million transactions a day in multiple operator sites across 3 continents. PreTUPS™ enables electronic transfer of talk time, and provides a method of directly and indirectly topping-up talk time in the subscriber’s prepaid account via various access channels, including STK, web, SMS, and USSD.
PreTUPS™ has broken the conventional prepaid service delivery chain and replaced scratch cards, allowing operators to vend prepaid talk time in electronic form over existing distribution channels. With PreTUPS™, operators are able to serve the lowest income segments of the market cost-effectively and thereby expand their customer base, which ultimately translates into a more thriving economy and greater economic growth,” commented Sabri Amireh, Vice President, MENA Region, Comviva. • 28-6-10
Vodafone Egypt is a total communications provider, offering customers voice, data, and 3G broadband and fixed internet. Vodafone Egypt now boasts a team of more than 6000 employees serving more than 24.6 million customers nationwide. Vodafone Egypt offers roaming services through agreements with more than 564 partners from more than 188 countries.
Comviva is the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS (Value Added Services). With a continuous focus on innovation, Comviva offers an extensive portfolio of products and solutions including content, commerce and community-related offerings that enrich mobile users’ lives. Comviva enhances operator efficiencies and revenue performance by adding value at every stage of the customer lifecycle – with solutions for provisioning, prepaid recharge, usage and retention and customer care. Further, Comviva has pioneered end-to-end management of operators’ entire VAS portfolio with its award-winning Managed VAS Services offering. Present in 15 countries and with its solutions deployed by operators in over 85 countries, Comviva powers services to more than 600 million mobile subscribers globally.
Alcatel-Lucent announced that MTS-Ukraine, one of the leading mobile operators in Ukraine and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, has selected Alcatel-Lucent to conduct a Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, which will begin in the second half of 2010.
“We embrace innovation that to us is a recipe for success,” said Andrei Dubovskov, Head of MTS-Ukraine. “LTE is a logical next step in the development of high-speed data transmission services. The launch of the trial LTE solution will enable us to assess the benefits of 4G technology not just in theory but through real practical experience.”
Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems. Alcatel-Lucent will provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.
“This agreement allows us to extend our long-standing partnership with MTS, enabling Alcatel-Lucent to play a prominent role in the company’s network transformation and LTE projects. We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent’s innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based networks,” commented Alexander Tikhonov, Alcatel-Lucent’s vice president for the CIS.
Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE solution is leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. • 17-2-10
MTS-Ukraine’s network covers approximately 97% of the territory and 99% of the population in Ukraine. The Company provides services to more than 17.56 million subscribers. MTS-Ukraine is licensed to provide mobile services using the GSM-900/1800 and CDMA-450 standards, as well as fixed-line services.
Services to financial, telecommunications, utilities and retail industries
Utiba Pte. Ltd., a leading global supplier of mobile financial transaction platforms for mobile operators and financial institutions, is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a joint-venture with Alternet Systems, Inc. a leader in hosted application services in the Americas.The joint-venture, Utiba Americas, will deploy a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform in the Americas and the Caribbean region focused on mCommerce and mobile financial services.
In the joint-venture, Utiba contributes its proprietary software, operational and commercial expertise, and experience in managing successful and speedy implementations of mobile financial and payment services while Alternet provides local management, technical and marketing resources, regional presence in over 16 countries, and extensive experience providing hosted applications.
Utiba Americas has a Miami based management, sales and consulting team to facilitate rapid deployment of services throughout the Americas and Caribbean region, and offers the same quality of support, both technical and business, that has made Utiba a global leader in mobile transactions.
Alternet CEO Henryk Dabrowski expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Alternet is thrilled to partner with Utiba in the Americas. With the Utiba platform supporting approximately 60% of global mobile payments, and over 320 million subscribers, Utiba is clearly a proven leader in this exciting new field.
Together, as Utiba Americas, we will offer a suite of mCommerce and mobile financial services in the region, on a hosted application platform. We are excited about the many services that the Utiba Americas platform will enable, from mobile banking and bill payment, to mobile wallets and microloan repayment, to name only a few of the many possibilities.”
Commenting on this development, Justin Ho, Co- CEO of Utiba stated, “Collaboration with Alternet opens a new wave of impressive possibilities for both companies. The agreement with Alternet is an important step towards strengthening our presence in Americas and Caribbean region. We chose Alternet for its excellent presence in this region, product portfolio and expertise that will complement our vision of empowering everyone to make mobile payments”. • 16-2-10
Utiba was founded in 2001 with the objective of creating scalable electronic top-up and versatile mobile commerce ecosystems, where users should be able to remit amounts to anyone anywhere in the world, knowing only their mobile phone number. Utiba products are focused around providing mobile transaction and payment solutions to banks, mobile operators, micro finance institutions, and payment service providers. Utiba’s products are successfully deployed across 4 different continents and 200 million subscribers.
The Qtel Group announced plans to make Mobile Money services available for customers across its international operations at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today.
With its regional footprint covering 17 countries, and more than 53 million customers, The Qtel Group is confident that it will generate strong demand for these services. In particular, with millions of dollars remitted from the Gulf region to Asian countries every year by expatriate workers, executives are confident that Mobile Money will have important social as well as financial benefits.
Among the services being developed as part of The Qtel Group’s mobile money proposition are secure international mobile remittance, mobile payment and mobile recharge facilities.
Because of its unique footprint, The Qtel Group believes it can become a prime provider of these services, both to existing customers within its network and to people within the scope of its remittance corridor coverage.
Dr. Nasser Marafih, Chief Executive Officer, The Qtel Group, explains: “There is a significant community of under-banked and un-banked segments in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, and Mobile Money services will play an increasingly important role in addressing their needs. With our presence across this region, and strong connectivity with key remittance markets such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, we are confident that The Qtel Group can play a key role in delivering Mobile Money services in a compelling and cost-effective manner.”
Research from leading group Gartner suggests that more than three billion of the world’s adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile or other Internet-based technology by 2014. At the same time, advances in mobile payment, commerce and banking are making it easier to electronically transact via mobile phone.
Money transfer is already of critical importance in Asia, the Middle East and Asia. For expatriate workers, remittances provide a vital link to ensure the stability of families back home, and many economies benefit significantly from the process.
India, for example, is one of the world's biggest recipients of remittances, alongside China, with the total value of remittances reaching about US$50 billion by 2008. The total value of remittances to the Philippines was a record-setting US$16.4 billion in the same year.
With a network of operations in key Gulf markets, North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Asian subcontinent, The Qtel Group is confident that it can leverage both scale and synergies to deliver an attractive and cost-effective service, and add a range of more sophisticated services as the facility evolves.
Dr. Nasser concludes: “The Qtel Group has developed a strong understanding of the needs of our diverse customer base, and our research demonstrates that Mobile Money services are among the most eagerly-anticipated across multiple markets. Our aim is to be among the leading companies in this field within the next few years, supplying the most reliable and cost-effective range of Mobile Money payments to millions of our customers.” • 15-2-10
With firm roots as the leading communications provider in Qatar, The Qtel Group is a fast growing, global, integrated communications group with three business lines - consumer wireless, consumer broadband and corporate managed services. The Group is committed to expansion in line with its strategic vision to be among the world’s top 20 telecommunications companies by 2020. Over the past four years, The Qtel Group has built a successful track record of acquisitions hence expanding its geographic footprint from 1 to 17 countries within the Middle East, North Africa, Asian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, connecting more than 53 million customers.
Telecom networks • Asia-Pacific
TCC Tonga launches new mobile-broadband-enabled network ahead of schedule
Tonga’s new mobile-broadband-enabled GSM network, delivered and installed by Altobridge has been launched by Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC) in the presence of the Prime Minister of Tonga, the Honourable Dr. Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele.
This commercial launch, which has taken place in the capital, Nuku’alofa, followed the May award to Altobridge by TCC of a contract for the replacement of the previous macro-GSM network, and is aimed at ensuring the continuous provision of service across the three main island groups: Tongatapu, Vava’u and Ha’apai. Roll-out has been completed well within the six-month timeframe allocated to the deployment’s first phase.
Part of this milestone event was the demonstration of mobile broadband based on Altobridge’s EDGE-capable network. Reliable, high-speed data access and coverage to even the remotest parts of the island nation have been demonstrated.
TCC Managing Director, Timote Katoanga, said, “Today marks a new beginning in the provision of advanced mobile communications services throughout our nation and we are delighted that Altobridge’s efforts have enabled us to go live earlier than expected. We are also most privileged to have the support of the Tongan Government on this important day and are delighted that the Prime Minister, the Honourable Dr. Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele, has taken the time to be with us to celebrate the occasion and inaugurate the new network.”
Also in attendance at the event, Altobridge CEO, Mike Fitzgerald, said, “We are delighted to have been selected by TCC to deploy its new mobile-broadband-enabled network and that, combined with our remote communications expertise, this network will help maintain and deliver advanced communications to connect Tonga’s population, including the thousands of people who remain unconnected.” • 27-8-10
Related: Altobridge signs 3-Year Wireless Network Supply and Services Contract with TCC
Headquartered at Kerry Technology Park, Ireland, with further R&D, service and sales offices in San Jose (USA), Shenzhen (China), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Altobridge is a leading provider of telecommunications solutions that cut the cost of communications to, from and between wireless devices. Altobridge sells wireless network solutions and can provide Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Government Organisations & NGOs with a Fully Managed Service, working hand-in-hand with local, in-country service partners.
Like many telecommunications service providers, Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC) began life as part of the island nation’s Post & Telegraph Department. This later went on to become the Telephone & Telegraph Department. In July 1978 the Telephone & Telegraph department split the business into international and domestic. The International business was taken over by Cable & Wireless Plc of the UK and the domestic business was re-christened Tonga Telecommunication Commission (TTC). In July 2000, Cable & Wireless Plc exited Tonga and the company was then merged with the domestic business to form Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC) as we are known today.
Today’s TCC is a 100% Tongan-owned company and Tonga’s only full service communications company offering total communication solutions. TCC is a public enterprise and falls under the Ministry of Public Enterprises of the Government of Tonga.
TCC employs more than 300 people spread over seven operating divisions, namely: Administration & HR, Sales and Marketing, Finance, Corporate and Finance Operations, Internal Audit, Engineering, Settlement & Roaming.
CTIA 2010
mMarketing V3.0 simplifies corporate messaging and marketing campaigns
Netsize, a Gemalto company and the leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, launched mMarketing V3.0 for the North American market. Netsize mMarketing is a web-based solution for corporate mobile messaging and mobile marketing campaigns.
“With over 89% of the U.S. population carrying a mobile phone and the increased capability of new smartphones, consumers are looking to their phones for more information and expecting their favorite brands to deliver relevant content to them,” stated Stanislas Chesnais, Chief Executive Officer, Netsize. “The mMarketing platform provides an easy way for companies to build innovative services and engage with customers on the go.”
mMarketing version 3.0 includes an optimized user interface that simplifies campaign management, progress tracking and monitoring of contacts making the solution very easy to use for even novice users. Netsize mMarketing can be fully customized to fit a customer’s corporate branding. Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) are provided, which enable the use of mMarketing by other software such as enterprise CRM and ERP systems, email solutions, and web pages.
Delivered as software-as-a-service mMarketing does not require installation, and all popular web browsers are supported. mMarketing is part of the Netsize SaaS Portal where customers manage their accounts, access technical support and have tools at their disposal to analyze messaging usage. The portal also provides a wealth of marketing intelligence on the mobile market. • 24-3-10
Now targeting its growth into the 50 million unbanked consumers with mobile phones • Unique approach to mobile financial services secures MCB 70,000 mobile customers and in excess of half a million mobile transactions in less than eight months
MCB, one of Pakistan’s leading banks, has passed an important milestone. In less than eight months the bank’s MCB Mobile service has processed more than US$10 million worth of transactions. The unique ‘shared platform’ approach in Pakistan, implemented by Access Group with Fundamo technology and expertise, means that all banks and mobile operators are able to use the same technology to deliver mobile financial services to end users. The use of a single, flexible technology platform frees banks and operators to focus on developing services that appeal to consumer needs, rather than implementing proprietary technology solutions.
70,000 MCB Mobile customers have made more than half a million transactions (such as mobile money transfers, bill payments, top ups and balance enquiries) since July 2009.
“The Pakistani regulator is one of the most proactive in the world and this shared platform would not have been possible without its support. This is a truly unique approach that stands apart from the piecemeal, proprietary implementations in other countries. It should be viewed as a blueprint by other nations looking to emulate our early success,” said Qasif Shahid, EVP, MCB Bank. “After the early success of MCB Mobile, we are now set to extend banking services to some 50 million, mobile savvy, unbanked consumers, offering them secure and convenient access to financial services.”
“Pakistan’s single platform has been a significant catalyst for mobile financial services uptake. By collaborating and embracing regulation, participants have been able to think big, start small and scale fast,” said Aletha Ling, Executive Director of Fundamo. “The result is an ecosystem that will support the long term and sustained growth of the Pakistani mobile financial services market. MCB has entered into mobile financial services with the perfect attitude – focusing on creating products and services that its customers really want.” • 17-2-10
Telecoms in emerging countries
Mobile penetration in two thirds of the African market remains below 40%, with remote regions with small enterprises and villages without effective means of communicating. The main barrier to entry is expensive satellite transmission. This remote community segment presents both a major service-delivery challenge for regional operators but also a serious revenue-generating opportunity.
By Mike Fitzgerald, CEO, Altobridge
The total wireless user figure of the African Continent, as of March 2008, stood at 280 million (1), although it was widely predicted that the 300-million subscriber mark would be reached by Q4 of the same year. Research house, Telegeography, more recently stated that 96 million new subscribers were added to Africa’s total (2) in Q1 2009, alone. While this rate of increase maintains Africa’s first place as the fastest growth market in the world, it still remains second smallest (3) in terms of cellular connections, behind the Middle East.
If the urban/sophisticated markets (some of which exhibit penetration rates of around 60%) are excluded from the statistical analysis and are viewed separately from these remote communities, which remain largely unconnected, cellular penetration figures would drop dramatically to single digits at most. With Universal Service Obligations (USO) mandating service delivery to even the most remote small populations, African mobile operators need viable ways to deliver cost-effective services.
The major obstacle has always been the high cost of transmission bandwidth, whether for terrestrial core network or satellite backhaul, and this has prevented profitable or even sustainable service delivery to these enterprise or village communities.
Some of the technologies deployed in certain parts of the world to deliver services to remote regions and meet USO requirements, have simply not enabled a sustainable business model. While initial roll-outs have been cost-effective and basic wireless services have reached a large number of isolated communities, the cost of continuing services has often come as a shock to the operator.
With very little revenue-generating traffic, the monthly overhead costs have become too high. The cost for a single BTS might appear small on paper but rises exponentially when hundreds of BTSs are involved. Therefore, the infrastructure providers have, in several cases, left the operators incurring massive operational overheads and costs —even before a call has been made— just to maintain a service for small groups of users whose ARPUs are, in any case, extremely low.
The key running cost is the expensive ‘always-on’ use of transmission bandwidth where the network backhaul resource remains open, whether core network or satellite link, even when no revenue-generating traffic is occurring. Despite the situation being addressed by the industry, widespread availability of suitable solutions remains low. However, one specialist in the field, Altobridge, has been successfully working to solve these issues for many years and has produced the patented Remote Community Solution. Altobridge’s practical experience working in remote parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, has ensured an unsurpassed understanding of the business, technological, practical/logistical and cultural challenges facing mobile operators and infrastructure providers trying to deliver services to remote community users.
With leading operators already deploying the Altobridge Remote Community Solution across Asia, the company is also currently trialing its technologies with operators in Northern and Western Africa (as well as in Latin America).
What differentiates the Altobridge technology is its ability to manage and restrict the use of expensive transmission bandwidth by combining two of its patented technologies. The first is the Altobridge Split Architecture, which ensures an ‘on-demand’ use of the satellite link only when revenue-generating traffic is occurring, and uses the lowest level of bandwidth in the industry at 5-8kbps per call. This system not only cuts down transmission costs effectively, it also cuts down power consumption, which is further reduced with a ‘night mode’.
The second technology is the Altobridge Local Connectivity Platform, which enables the intelligent switching of all local calls locally. This eliminates unnecessary double satellite hops and improves network quality, which encourages longer call holding times, resulting in increased call revenues. As up to 70% (4) of calls can be local, there are significant opportunities to reduce transmission costs in all areas of the network. The Local Connectivity Platform has been licensed to world-leading infrastructure providers, including Ericsson.
The benefits of these two technologies combined in the Remote Community Solution, including a Fully Managed Service offering, makes this the most cost-effective solution for rural communities available on the market today.
According to Wireless Intelligence, the average penetration rates were 35% in West Africa and 60% in the Northern African regions at the end of 2008 (3), but combined, these two regions show around 168.5 million connections, representing around two thirds of the continent’s total connections.
Within this network activity mix, the current Altobridge trials of its Remote Community Solution will demonstrate to African mobile network operators how to profitably meet their USO requirements to provide profitable services to their remote user groups. • December 2009
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