MTN Traveller, Hotels.com in global partnership (South Africa)
MTN Traveller has entered into a global content interface partnership with Hotels.com to provide a mobile travel-planning solution, while also promoting local tourism.
MTN Traveller was launched in November 2010 as a travel.mobi bookings portal offering access to accommodation, airfare and car hire options.
The new partnership with Hotels.com will expand the variety of choices available to users.
According to CMO of MTN South Africa Serame Taukobong, as a result of the partnership with Hotels.com, MTN Traveller will be in a position to offer its local users access to 132,000 accommodation choices in 213 countries around the world, directly from a cellphone interface.
8ta launches per-second billing for pre-paid customers (South Africa)
8ta has announced that the company will ow charge all new pre-paid customers on a per-second structure.
This new billing option enables customers to pay pro-rata at a per second rate for the duration of the call, thus making per-second billing a cheaper option for subscribers who make shorter duration calls on a regular basis.
8ta’s per-second billed pre-paid option offers rates of US$0.16 per minute for off peak calls and US$0.39 per minute for peak time calls. The per-second billing rate is applicable from the first second of the call. This will be effective from 15 May.
Nashua Mobile offers 8ta services (South Africa)
Nashua Mobile has started offering 8ta services to its subscriber base nationwide with immediate effect.
Telkom-owned 8ta is South Africa’s fourth mobile network operator. Nashua Mobile has added 8ta’s offering to its portfolio in line with its commitment to offering its customers access to the widest possible selection of the best products and services from South Africa’s leading networks.
8ta’s full range of postpaid products are now available from Nashua Mobile’s national network of dealers and franchised stores, 8ta’s prepaid products will be available from 07 June. The first 100,000 8ta customers to sign up for a contract will get free calls to a nominated Telkom number for 24 months.
208 operators in 80 countries currently investing in LTE- Report
A recent report by Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has revealed that around 208 operators are now investing in LTE, which is 98 operators more than in June 2010.
According to the report, the number of countries and territories where LTE systems are deployed or planned has increased by 32 in the same period.
The report confirms 154 firm LTE network deployments are in progress or planned in 60 countries, including 20 networks which have commercially launched. A further 54 operators in 20 more countries are engaged in LTE technology pilot trials or tests.
Taken together, it means that 208 operators in 80 countries are now investing in LTE. The report covers both LTE FDD and LTE TDD systems. The 60 countries and territories having firm LTE network commitments are Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R., Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore , South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, UAE, UK, Uruguay, USA, and Uzbekistan.
LTE networks are launched in 14 countries, namely Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, USA, and Uzbekistan. GSA forecasts that at least 81 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end-2012.
MTN to launch white iPhone 4 (South Africa)
MTN South Africa will launch the white iPhone 4 soon at selected MTN stores across the country.
According to MTN, the new device should be available in stores by 20 May. Pricing will begin at US$48.68 a month, with a 150 MB data bundle included.
Customers are advised that there will be no pre-registration for the iPhone 4 and they will have to contact their closest MTN store.
MTN teams up with MTV for youth documentary series (Africa)
MTN has joined forces with MTV Networks in a pan-African multimedia campaign designed to inspire African youth by connecting them with some of the world’s most influential personalities.
The companies are partnering to produce MTV Base Meets…with MTN, an eight-part TV series that creates a dialogue between young people and political, business and cultural leaders.
The documentary series will allow Africa’s young minds to put probing questions to influential, inspirational and sometimes controversial individuals.
Among the people who will feature in the series are Liberian President Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Africa’s first and only elected female head of state), Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and South African politician Julius Malema (President of the ANC Youth League).
A diverse panel of young people representing different youth interests will be assembled from across the African continent, with participants coming from Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, among others.
African youth will be encouraged to nominate influencers and submit their proposed questions for the programme via a dedicated MTV base Meets…with MTN website or via their mobile handsets.
MTN, Nokia ink strategic framework agreement (Africa)
Nokia has signed an agreement with MTN Group that will expand their strategic relationship to new key markets within the Middle East and Africa at MTN affiliates.
The framework agreement will permit the large community of MTN customers to benefit from the integration of Nokia devices and solutions. Joint marketing and sales campaigns will be designed on a regional level and will bring consumers the latest Nokia mobile phones and smartphones, combined with value-added services such as orientation and navigation tools.
Building on previous partnerships such as the joint launch of the Nokia C3 with MTN data services in Nigeria, and the launch of the Nokia E7 and business tools for corporate clients in South Africa, the intention is to drive similar bundles, services and experiences in other MTN markets to add value to consumers.
The two companies will also collaborate to create hyper-local applications, such as Ovi Life Tools, which will soon be officially launched in Nigeria, bringing consumers locally relevant data for farming, education and entertainment.
Nashua Mobile takes action on international call forwarding fraud (South Africa)
Nashua Mobile is in the process of removing the international roaming, calling and forwarding functionality on all customers SIM cards in a proactive effort to protect them from fraudsters who steal SIM cards and use them to run up massive international phone bills.
This is in response to the growing incidence of international call forwarding fraud, where thieves use stolen SIM cards to place international collect calls against the subscriber’s account.
Nashua Mobile alerted all customers via SMS to be aware of international call forwarding fraud and to ensure that all lost and stolen SIM cards are reported immediately.
The company is in the process of removing all international roaming, calling and forwarding functionality from all customers that have not used this functionality over the past 12 months and will notify the customers via SMS.
All customers who have made use of the international roaming and calling functionality within the past six month period will receive a SMS requesting them to contact Nashua Mobile should they still require the functionality before it is automatically removed.
Nashua Mobile is working closely with the network operators to put further measures in place to curb this sort of fraud.
InMobi introduces SmartPay global m-payments platform (US)
InMobi has introduced its SmartPay global m-payments platform. The system targets developers who want to integrate mobile payments across multiple countries, carriers, and systems.
InMobi SmartPay is designed to enable app developers, game companies, and content providers in the mobile content and virtual goods space to expand their business and monetize their users into new markets by providing a one-time, no setup cost, single point of integration across multiple countries.
The service offers consumers a mobile checkout experience using direct to carrier billing to start, but expanding to all forms of mobile payment methods including credit cards, PayPal, and local mobile wallets by year-end.
The InMobi technology in combination with local InMobi teams handle the regulatory complexity, fraud detection, tax issues, currency conversion, payment settlements, and customer support, globally.
The InMobi SmartPay technology has been designed to automatically recognize the country, handset, operator and OS of the consumer, and dynamically serve the buying path most likely to convert.
According to InMobi, its SmartPay platform currently reaches over 1 billion consumers in 7 countries including the US, UK, Germany, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and South Africa. By year-end the figure is forecast to increase to 3 billion consumers in 30 countries.
MaxID wins 1,000 iDL500 device orders (South Africa)
MaxID has announced that it has won a 1000-unit sale of its iDL500 units in South Africa.
The iDL500 is a multi-modal, rugged mobile computer that offers a qwerty keyboard, contact card, contactless card, barcode, optical fingerprint, and optional magnetic swipe and MRZ readers with a digital camera, GPS, and communications capabilities such as 3G, GSM and Wi-Fi.
The iDL500 is supports field-based identity and fingerprint verification, field enrollment and identity management requirements. MaxID’s distribution partner is Pinnacle Technology Holdings.
