Wireless Federation

The Western Union Company today announced that it has created an alliance with Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E., one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Orascom Telecom and Western Union plan to work together to introduce mobile remittance services in select markets. The services aim to make low-principal, high-frequency remittances more convenient to the millions of consumers who send money every day.
Orascom Telecom, which was established in 1998, operates six mobile networks with a combined total of 77 million subscribers, including Djezzy in Algeria, Mobilink in Pakistan, Mobinil in Egypt, Tunisiana in Tunisia, Banglalink in Bangladesh, and Telecel Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. In addition, in early 2008, Orascom Telecom acquired a license in North Korea to operate mobile services.
“Orascom Telecom mobile networks are in areas with high populations of people who have limited access to financial services,” said Naguib Sawiris, Orascom Telecom Chairman and CEO. “We believe this alliance, supported by our current mobile subscribers throughout the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, presents an effortless method to bring financial services to many of the world’s families for the first time.”
Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, maintains the industry’s largest global money transfer Agent network with more than 355,000 locations in over 200 countries and territories.
“As the need for remittances continues to grow, so does the desire for new channels to conduct quick, convenient and affordable money transfers,” said Gail Galuppo, Western Union Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “Western Union is already offering this convenience with mobile money transfers from select locations, and we look forward to working with Orascom Telecom to offer this option to their subscribers in the future.”
Several of the countries where Orascom Telecom operates are among the top receivers of remittances in the world. For example, according to the World Bank, Bangladesh received US$6.6 billion in remittances in 2007; Pakistan received US$6.1 billion, and Egypt received US$5.9 billion.
The Western Union(R) mobile money transfer service is currently available from select Western Union Agent locations in the United States, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe to Globe Telecom and Smart Communications subscribers in the Philippines.
The mobile money transfer service connects mobile operators to Western Union’s trusted global “hub” for processing cross-border remittances. Once connected to Western Union’s service, mobile operators use their own “mobile wallet” software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union’s global remittance network. The Mobile Money Transfer service enables consumers to transfer money to or from mobile wallets and is being introduced into the global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.
The agreement with Orascom Telecom is part of the pilot program of Western Union and the GSM Association, a global trade association representing over 750 GSM mobile phone operators, to facilitate the development of cross-border mobile money transfer services.

About The Western Union Company

The Western Union Company is a leader in global money-transfer services. Together with its affiliates, Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, Western Union provides consumers with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders. It operates through a combined network of more than 355,000 Agent locations in over 200 countries and territories. Famous for its pioneering telegraph services, the original Western Union dates back to 1851. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

About Orascom Telecom

Orascom Telecom is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in six high growth markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, having a total population under license of approximately 440 million with an average mobile telephony penetration of 44% as of June 30, 2008. Orascom Telecom had over 77 million subscribers as of June 30, 2008.
Orascom Telecom is controlled by Weather Investments S.p.a. which also owns Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.a., Italy’s third largest mobile operator and second largest fixed-line operator, and Wind Hellas, the third largest mobile operator in Greece.
Orascom Telecom is traded on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange under the symbol; and on the London Stock Exchange, its GDR is traded under the symbol.

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information you can log on to www.wirelessfederation.com

O2 and Vodafone Germany launch mobile banking service dubbed as mpass payment service. The operators’ service will cater to nearly 70 mllion bank and mobile customers across the nation and will provide them an experience of online shopping on their mobile phone or PC. This new payment system assure a high degree of security. The following online retailers will be introducing the mpass payment system at its commercial launch: CinemaxX, ,Blume2000.de, EuroFuchs, Kickz and Beate Uhse.
The service will be available to all the German mobile users. The new mpass service is incredibly simple to use because it is a combination of the established direct debit system and text message confirmation. In practice, this means that customers can already buy products from the online shop and, in future, they will be able to buy them from the mobile portal. All they have to do is enter their mobile phone number and an mpass PIN that they choose themselves. Vodafone customers can also use their customer PIN for the mpass service. When the PIN has been entered, a text message is sent to their mobile phone. All they have to do is confirm it and the amount is direct debited from their account. Prepaid customers, customers with company mobile phones and customers who use other providers’ networks have to register once to use the online payment service free of charge at www.mpass.de.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanco) has ease payement procedures for its account holders. Zanco launched a mobile banking service dubbed Xapit. This mobile banking service allows its customers to make payments via cell phone. Zanaco managing director Mark Weissing, said that the facility will initially be made available only to the bank’s customers but will later be extended to over 2 million people who have mobile phones but no bank accounts. Weissing further said that Xapit enables mobile bill payments, airtime purchases and fund transfers. Only Zain Zambia subscribers can avail this service. The motive to rollout this service is to improve the business activities of the bank and its customers.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact christina@wirelessfederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Mobile Money Ventures LLC (MMV), a joint venture of Citi and SK Telecom announced that its solution for mobile financial services is compatible with Android™, a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Google™ and other players have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders. This offering will enable financial institutions and carriers to offer customers the ability to use a comprehensive set of mobile financial services on Android-powered mobile devices.

As mobile devices continue to get more sophisticated, financial institutions (FIs) and carriers have the opportunity to enhance customer loyalty and enrich customer experience by delivering innovative applications, such as mobile banking. The Android-compatible application developed by MMV is such an application. It allows FIs to deploy mobile banking applications quickly with a platform that allows end users to use their mobile device to pay, track and manage finances – and take advantage of vendor rewards programs created specifically for wireless users.

Using their Android-enabled mobile device, end users will be able to easily download the financial application that will enable them to transfer money, check their accounts, get branch information, and carry out a Person-to-Person (P2P) transfer. Users will also have access to a stock monitoring feature that allows for real-time trading, portfolio management, and real-time market information. Other features include tracking receipts and expenses and a variety of payment functions.

“We are working closely with our financial institution and mobile carrier customers to deliver a secure, customizable product that will get to market quickly – and help transform the customer’s experience,” said Steve Kietz, CEO of Mobile Money Ventures, and executive vice president of Growth Ventures and Innovation for Citi’s Global Consumer Group. ”Mobile banking will revolutionize the industry in the next few years much the way ATM machines did in the 1980s. By capturing the power of Google’s Android software, our mobile banking platform will set a high standard for this emerging use of wireless technology.”

MMV’s Android-compatible solution features:

* Banking: Provides money transfer, account balance inquiries, location of local branches, and P2P transfer using a mobile phone number instead of the account number.
* Account management: Provides support while users are on the move. Compared to online banking services, users can actively monitor their financial status without being tied to a computer terminal.
* Payment: A variety of payment functions are provided to users including card payment, NFC payment, remote payment and mobile wallet (m-wallet).
* Stock monitoring: Provides real-time stock trading functionalities, portfolio management and real-time market information via mobile devices.
* Track deals and rewards: A two-fold feature: on one side, customers can track receipts and expenses; on the other is a mobile phone-based couponing and reward program.

To see a demonstration of MMV’s Android application at the Mobile Commerce Summit on June 23-24 at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, please attend Kietz’s presentation at the summit on “Mobility as Part of the Bank’s Overall Business Strategy,” from 9:15-10 a.m. on June 23.

Google and Android are trademarks of Google Inc. All company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi’s major brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Nikko. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.

About SK Telecom

SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM, KSE: 017670) is the top wireless communication provider in Korea, where it has more than 22 million subscribers taking up more than 50% of the total market. The company, established in 1984, reached KRW 11.28 trillion in revenue in 2007. SK Telecom was the first to launch and commercialized CDMA, CDMA 2001x,CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, and it currently provides cellular, wireless internet, mobile media, global roaming service and more. For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Expectations for a rapid roll-out of mobile banking (or m-banking) services have been revived by the extraordinary success of Kenyan cellphone operator Safaricom’s M-Pesa money transfer facility, leading to renewed predictions that the cellphone and banking sectors are in the process of convergence.

M-Pesa was introduced by Safaricom in Kenya in March 2007. The service provides an SMS-based, low cost, person-to-person, money transfer facility, which also allows the user to purchase prepaid goods and services (e.g., mobile top-up time and utilities). It has seen subscribers increase from around 100,000 at its launch to more than 3.6 million by July 2008. During that time, M-Pesa has moved some 21 billion Kenyan shillings ($288 million) around the country.

M-Pesa is still only a mobile money-transfer facility. However, Safaricom, which is 40% owned by U.K.-based Vodafone (nyse: VOD - news - people ), is now seeking to expand M-Pesa to embrace remittances, mortgage payments and other services. While such ambitions fall far short of the deposit-taking and transactional roles carried out by retail banks, they are still a challenge to them.

Predictions have existed since the 1990s that cellphones’ ability to transmit data could help bring rudimentary financial services to the vast reservoir of unbanked or underbanked individuals in Africa, signaling the next phase of the continent’s economic transformation.

Challenges. The experience of MobileMoney, which has now been in operation for about three years, illustrates the problems of the m-banking sector across Africa to date:

–Take-up. Far from reaching the unbanked, m-banking services have largely been targeted at existing customers, and even in this case takeup rates have been low. Moreover, active use of accounts has tended to drop off and most customers limit their usage to airtime top-ups and person-to-person payments.

–Complex transactions. Despite the considerable technological advances in the past decade, using a mobile handset to conduct transactional banking remains considerably more complex than using an ATM. Easier technology and more customer education would be required for m-banking to develop mass appeal.

–Regulatory compliance. In developing new financial payments systems, cellphone operators have escaped the regulatory burden faced by banks because they do not, strictly speaking, take deposits. Any attempt by cellphone operators to move beyond cash transfers or purchases of prepaid products into providing a wider range of financial services would encounter this regulatory burden.

In addition to meeting liquidity reserves to protect depositors, cellphone operators would also have to comply with a bewildering and costly array of secondary legislation, including:

–know your customer (KYC) rules

–anti-money laundering regulations

–countering the finance of terrorism legislation

In South Africa and elsewhere in Africa, the cost of KYC compliance has been a key factor in slowing the uptake of m-banking services. Both Vodafone and Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) have been lobbying African governments for a reform of the regulatory framework, but they are unlikely to escape it entirely. As a result, the business model deemed most likely to deliver the much vaunted m-banking breakthrough will be a cellphone-bank joint venture.

Established players. Visa and MasterCard, the world’s two largest payment systems, have been watching m-banking developments in Africa closely, recognizing that handsets are likely to emerge as a distinct payment channel. That competition could arrive earlier than anticipated from a number of African firms hoping to ‘leapfrog’ credit cards where no payment infrastructure exists.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Orascom Telecom, the Egyptian wireless group with operations across seven countries including Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, plans to launch a new company offering banking services to its 70 million customers. Speaking to the Financial Times, chairman Naguib Sawiris said the new company would offer customers the chance to use their mobiles to access banking services, including money transfer. Mobile banking is expected to become an important revenue source for cellcos in emerging markets, where many people do not have conventional bank accounts because charges can be high and retail banking branches scarce.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@Wirelessfederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel) disclosed that it plans to launch a mobile phone money transfer service next week. The service – called Z Cash – is expected to come to market before a corresponding money transfer service named M-Pesa to be launched by rival operator Vodacom later in the month. ‘We are introducing Z Cash next week. It’s essentially the same kind of service that Vodacom is going to introduce. It’s just that we are going to get there first,’ said Noel Herrity, Director General of Zantel. Herrity added that Zantel had 1 million subscribers at the end of March 2008, up from 684,000 at the end of 2007.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Yodlee announced a framework agreement in which Vodafone UK will exclusively re-sell Yodlee’s mobile banking solution through its Target program.

Yodlee Mobile[TM], which will be individually branded for each UK financial institution, provides customers with easy, secure access and proactive monitoring across multiple financial accounts (banking, investments, bills, credit cards, etc). Access is available through a mobile WAP browser as well as two-way text messages, and alerts can be received on email as well as through text.

Two major UK financial institutions have already signed up for the Vodafone/Yodlee Mobile Banking solution, and will launch by year end.

“Vodafone has proven itself an expert in delivering mobile solutions,” said Joseph Polverari, senior vice president of strategy and development at Yodlee. “Combined with Yodlee’s expertise in delivering personal financial content from virtually any online source, this solution represents a massive opportunity to create value for financial institutions and consumers alike. We are thrilled to be partnering with Vodafone UK to bring to market a whole new mobile banking experience.”

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

In many poor and emerging countries, the lack of banking infrastructure but widespread use of mobile phones has created a business opportunity that network operators are keen to exploit.

British operator Vodafone announced that it would launch a money transfer service in Afghanistan after the successful introduction of a similar initiative in Kenya.

An estimated 1.6 million people have begun using the Vodafone scheme in Kenya since its launch in March last year. In a country of 10 million mobile phone users, there are only 400 bank outlets and 600 automatic teller machines.

“This is really the early days, but when you see the low banking penetration in emerging markets, compared to rapidly growing mobile penetration, the potential is very big,” said James Moberly, senior manager for payment solutions at Vodafone on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress here.

The GSM Association, the global mobile phone industry body, estimates that about a dozen such schemes involving money transfer services are in operation throughout the world, with 10 million users.

Vodafone plans to launch cash transfer services soon in India and other African countries.

“You can send money, withdraw cash, pay your bills or your loan, and all this is within seconds,” said Aleeda Fazal, head of product development at Afghan group Roshan, which is the partner for Vodafone in the troubled country.

In effect, the network operator acts as a money transfer agent for the subscriber.

The user deposits money and then sends an SMS to a person who can go to a phone shop anywhere in the country and take out the amount stipulated in the text message.

Operators win in three ways, explained a spokesman for the GSM Association, which represents 700 mobile operators.

“The operator gets a small commission, but above all it boosts customer loyalty and it increases traffic on its network”, said David Pringle.

The problem, or opportunity, at the moment is that the cash transfers can only be done within a country, excluding the millions of migrant workers who send money home regularly from abroad.

The GSM Association cites figures that 200 million people work in a country that is not their own, on average sending home 2,000-3,000 dollars per year to their loved ones.

This puts the value of the international money transfer market at about 250 billion dollars, with India, China and Mexico the biggest destinations for cash.

International money transfers are long, complicated and are also limited by the lack of banking infrastructure in many developing countries.

With a view to promoting the idea of cross-border money transfers via mobile phones, the GSM Association launched last year a pilot programme with 19 operators in 100 countries and involving Mastercard and international transfer specialist Western Union.

If a solution can be found, the GSM estimates that the flow of funds could increase by four-fold by 2012, reaching 1,000 billion dollars.
For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Verizon Wireless and Firethorn, a Qualcomm company specialized in mobile banking and payments solutions, announced that customers of major financial institutions in the U.S., including Wachovia, SunTrust, FirstBank, and BancorpSouth, can access their accounts from their mobile. The mobile banking solution powered by Firethorn allows Verizon Wireless customers to manage their finances while on-the-go, enabling them to check bank account balances, transfer funds between accounts within the same bank, and review and pay bills that are already set up through the financial institution’s online account service.

“After announcing our relationship with Firethorn two months ago, we’re making mobile banking a reality for our customers,” said Jim Straight, Verizon’s senior vice president of consumer products. “And whether our customers prefer to bank at Wachovia, SunTrust, FirstBank or BancorpSouth, they can now do so wherever they go because Firethorn and their financial institution partners provide a secure, easy-to-use and flexible mobile banking application that delivers a superior customer experience.”

The Firethorn application is secure and utilizes both PIN and device lock-out capabilities, which are in addition to the security that is already incorporated by the financial institution. As another layer of security, customers will need to register with their financial institution’s online banking service in order to use mobile banking.

“Viewing balances, making transfers and paying bills on-the-go is an exciting first step for millions of Verizon Wireless customers. Together with Verizon Wireless and our financial partners, we are helping to define the market for mobile financial services,” said Tripp Rackley, CEO of Firethorn. Financial institutions that have joined the Firethorn network include Wachovia, SunTrust Bank, Regions Financial, BancorpSouth, Synovus, FirstBank, Arvest Bank, and America First Credit Union.

The Firethorn application is currently available on several phones from Verizon Wireless, including the Chocolate, enV, X8700, VX8600, VX9400 by LG, and the Samsung SCH-a950, with support for new devices to be added in the coming months. Users can download the Firethorn application for free from Verizon Wireless’ Get It Now virtual store.

For Best Practices/ Case Studies on Mobile Money - Banking, Remittances, Commerce & Payments. Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News