Western Union introduces first money transfer service(UAE)
Western Union has signed an agreement with Emirates NBD to launch Western Union’s Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service for the first time in the UAE.
The service offering will enable all Emirates NBD account holders to send money domestically and internationally, through all banking channels. The ABMT service will be available to all Emirates NBD customers through internet banking facilities and ATMs as well as mobile money transfer.
Account holders will be able to send money from their accounts for pay out at any Western Union Agent location in over 200 countries and territories.
Emirates airline launches Bollywood reality show
A major airline of the Middle East, Emirates has unveiled the first Bollywood variety show which will be produced and aired exclusively in North America and there is a mobile component associated with it as well.
The organizers ask people to vote using mobile voting when they watch the shows on the television. Thereafter the winners are decided.
According to John Demarchi, executive vice president of sponsorships and social media at Saavn, mobile voting is very important to see who wins—each week five contestants perform and each has a mobile keyword.
In his opinion, the Emirates Destination Bollywood program has a multi-platform marketing mix—TV, Web and mobile, print, in-theater, even radio promoting this.
The programme which features singing, dancing and Hindi music video will run for 10 weeks. It includes two reality television segments where Web and TV viewers pick the best local dancer and singer by texting in American Idol.
Etisalat withholds payments to Pakistan again
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Payment of USD800 million by UAE-based Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) to the Pakistani government is again expected to be withheld by the Middle Eastern company for the fifth month in a row.
The payment was supposed to be made by the end of March as part of Etisalat 2006 acquisition of a 26% stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). The difference between the Pakistani government and Etisalat over the transfer of real estate units remains unresolved.
According to Mohammad Omran, Etisalat chairman, until now, the government has not released a list of properties to be converted to PTCL ownership and the payment will be made when the list is released. On the other hand, according to Shahab Khawaja, federal secretary at Ministry of privatization (MOP), they have already approached provincial governments to put value to the properties in their respective provinces and as soon as they get it, same will be conveyed to Etisalat and PTCL.
Etisalat has made it clear that the payments will be withheld until properties that were originally part of the company’s 2006 acquisition of a 26% stake in PTCL are registered in the Pakistani operator’s name. MOP has announced March 31, 2010 as Etisalat next payment date.
BlackBerry Mobily-ised
Push e-mail vendor Blackberry will launch a service for enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia through mobile operator Mobily this month, its channel partner Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS) announced last week.
The mobile systems integrator said in a press conference last week that pilot projects were already underway with eight of the Kingdom’s biggest corporations – although it declined to name any of them.
Mobily will be offering the Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the BlackBerry 8700 handset to corporate customers in the Kingdom this month and then to consumers before the end of the year.
The Saudi launch follows the introduction of BlackBerry to the UAE in May and EMS said there would be a number of other tie-ups with other Middle East operators over the coming months.
“There are soon to be many other operators [launching BlackBerry] in the region,” claimed William Rom, chief operating officer of EMS.
As well as the news about its deal with Mobily, EMS also unveiled a number of the top corporate customers it has signed up in the UAE since launching around five months ago.
Its corporate customers include Emirates Bank, National Bank of Dubai (NBD), Emirates Group, Emaar, Dubai Aluminium, Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB).
Source- http://www.itp.net/news
Technorati : Middle East, Mobile, RIM
Ice Rocket : Middle East, Mobile, RIM
