BulkSMS, a wireless application service provider, is now offering MTN and Vodacom subscribers access to subscription services via SMS.

According to the company a variety of services can be offered from financial services and weather reports all the way through to more entertaining applications like horoscopes, motivational messages and sports scores.

How it works is that BulkSMS assists content providers to offer their material on a subscription basis with the costs of setting up this service varying according to several factors.

The content provider will then be able to charge his clients anything from R1 per month to R30 per month, and earn a percentage of the revenue.

But subscribers must be careful to read the fine print of any subscription service as they will be billed automatically once signing on

Subscription services provide cell phone users with the benefit of receiving requested mobile content on a daily, weekly or ongoing basis. They do not need to re-confirm their billing once they have agreed to receive a subscription service. Users are billed at regular intervals and receive ongoing mobile content feeds,??? said Dr Pieter Streicher, managing director of BulkSMS.com, a division of Celerity Systems.

Unfortunately this offer is only for users on the MTN and Vodacom networks. CellC subscribers will have a wait until subscription services are available on this network.

Multimedia Message Service

The other big new development in the local mobile content provisioning arena is MMS, which stands for Multimedia Message Service.

MMS is a method of transmitting graphics, video clips, sound files text messages over wireless networks.

Whilst the service has been around for a while the news is that Nashua Mobile has decided to offer this service as part of their bouquet of products and services on the market.

Nashua Mobile has launched a multimedia messaging services (MMS) portal that gives companies of all sizes the ability to easily communicate with their customers using MMS as a tool

The good news for those interested in using MMS, is that according to Nashua they have done everything to the book to ensure that they adhere to the strictest principles of permission-based marketing to protect consumers from spam and ensure that corporate clients’ brands are not compromised.???

Nashua Mobile has also included an ‘unsubscribe’ function to allow customers to opt out of this service. This ensures that companies can meet marketing best practice as well as the requirements of the ECT Act.

Says Doug Mattheus, marketing director at Nashua Mobile: With penetration of MMS-ready phones into the South African market increasing by the day, MMS is coming into its own as a communications medium. Most new phones support the technology, which means that companies can now reach customers with more interactive cellular content that rivals email messaging for richness.???

Sending an MMS of 0-20k through Nashua Mobile’s service will cost R0.95 and for a larger MMS (0-100k) it is R1.95.

What this says about South Africa

It seems that developments in the mobile arena are taking off with companies increasingly exploring ways to target this rather large and lucrative market.

South Africa’s mobile phone and mobile data environment is looking extremely healthy in comparison to the fixed line market which should be the driver of telecoms in the country.

Reiterating that the reason for this rather unique but bleak situation is due to Telkom’s monopoly is like beating a dead donkey but it has to be said.

The fact that Telkom practically owns the fixed line telecommunication industry in South Africa means that this market has become sluggish and repeatedly fails to make the necessary upgrades.

Whilst the monopoly has upgraded their 1024DSL users to a healthy 4 Mbps service we still do not have IPTV or a big enough cap to warrant this change.

The wireless mobile companies on the other hand have proven that they are more than up for the challenge of dominating the market and seem to be doing just that.

The industry’s reaction to innovative moves made by the cellular companies is testimony to this fact.

All sorts of services and technologies are being developed around this more vibrant market and it is good to see that some parts of the SA telecoms environment are still alive and kicking.

Source- http://www.mybroadband.co.za