TCS and HCL Tech look to acquire Comviva as Bharti plans to sell (India)
Bharti Enterprises may sell off a majority of its stake in Comviva, a leading company specializing in providing value added services (VAS) for mobile handsets. Sources claim large IT companies such as TCS and HCL Technologies are competing to acquire the same and a deal might be in the pipeline. Reportedly, Bharti aims to receive between $300 and 350 million for sale of its non-core business.
The youth segment provides for a large consumer base demanding quick downloads for music, video clips and sports updates among others, enabling VAS to become a good revenue stream for mobile service providers. With competition causing voice tariffs to be priced at very low rates, mobile operators are increasingly turning to VAS for better revenue generation.
Services such as SMS account for half the VAS revenues, while caller tunes and mobile applications for radio, live score update and mobile gaming downloads are increasingly gaining popularity. For some mobile companies, VAS accounts for as much as 7-10 percent of their revenues.
With mobile players working to provide various new services on their 3G network and innovations like mobile banking on the rise, VAS revenues are expected to rise significantly.
Comviva join hands with MTN Ghana for virtual SIM solution
VAS solution provider Comviva has signed a new deal with MTN Ghana for virtual SIM solution. MTN Ghana is a telecom operator, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
According to the company, Comviva’s Virtual SIM solution will enable MTN Ghana will be able to extend its services to people who cannot afford to own a handset.
The solution allows users to make and receive calls, send and receive SMSs and make payments, virtually, using other people’s phones. They also gain a unique mobile identity, with their own phone number and virtual phone account.
According to Eben Albertyn, chief technical officer, MTN Ghana, With Comviva’s Virtual SIM solution, the company will be extending access to mobile communications and providing underserved segments with an affordable route to gaining the unique mobile identity.
According to Manoranjan Mohapatra, chief executive officer, Comviva, whilst mobile penetration in many developed markets has exceeded 100%, there remains significant scope for growth in the world’s emerging markets, where just one third of the population uses mobile communication services. Extending mobile communications to under-served segments requires a cost effective solution that overcomes barriers to service uptake, such as affordability of a handset and simplicity of use.
Maroc Telecom launches mobile service Mobi Cash (Morocco)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Launch of mobile service Mobi Cash has been announced by the major wireless and fixed line telecom operator in Morocco, Maroc Telecom, in partnership with Comviva which provides mobile solutions beyond VAS.
Comviva’s mobiquit mCommerce solution will be used by the Moroccan operator enabling mobile operators and financial institutions to offer secured and cost-effective mobile banking, mobile wallet and mobile payment services.
According to Sabri Amireh, Vice President, MENA Region, Comviva, the company is focusing strongly on delivering mCommerce solutions for the rapidly growing markets, as demand for transformational mobile financial services is significant.
As per a research, mobile phone will be used by over 100 million users globally for international money transfers by 2013. The mobile international transfers are expected to exceed an average of one transaction per month. Western Europe, North America and Africa and Middle East (MEA) will account for more than 75% of the global international mobile money transfer gross transaction value by 2013.
Comviva to provide SMS Router to Ezypt’s Mobinil
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Comviva’s SMS Router has been selected by Egypt’s largest GSM operator Mobinil to enhance SMS traffic delivery across its network. With the help of a new class of message intelligence from SMS Router, Mobinil can optimize delivery, improve handling of high throughput requirements, efficient load share and integrate SMSCs.
Mobinil can hugely improve its message handling capacity as SMS Router will integrate all SMSCs across the network into one virtual SMS processing platform, thus reducing the burden on some SMSCs and exploit latent SMS processing power elsewhere.
35 mobile operators in the MENA region has been given solution by the Comviva and the solution now reaches over 500 million subscribers globally and 130 million subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa.
According to Sabri Amireh, VP, Middle East & North Africa, Comviva, the company is happy to work in partnership with one of the region’s most dynamic operators, Mobinil and also confident of adding value to Mobinil’s services in the Middle East region.
Airtel & Comviva ink managed services deal (India)
www.WirelessFderation.com/news: Bharti Airtel has signed a three-year managed services deal with Comviva, an integrated VAS solutions provider for mobile operators in emerging markets. The company said that with this deal, it becomes the first telecom services operator in the world to have managed services agreement for its value added services portfolio. Under the terms of the deal, Comviva will manage around 2000+ of Airtel’s VAS nodes across India from various partners, to meet defined service level agreements.
