Archive for October 8th, 2007

Genie: Mobile Payment Solution From Mobilink

Published by Babar Bhatti on October 8, 2007 under M-Commerce, Mobile Applications, Telecommunications, Value Added Services

genie-about.jpgThe anticipated mobile payment solution powered by inov8has been launched by Mobilink (see my related post at ATP which mentioned inov8). The oddly named “Genie” is being promoted on their website for indigo and jazz customers. It is being marketed as convenient and secure so as to build trust, which is a huge factor for mass adoption in Pakistani market. It is only a matter of time before all mobile operators will start offering some flavor of mobile payment service. The importance of this transition was also noted by Rob Katz in this blog post at Nextbillion.net where he notes that in Pakistan ”the telecoms are beginning to look at new value-added services, such as micropayments, international remittances, and other transactions.”

The application has to be downloaded to the phone and standard data charges apply. There’s a nominal fee associated with utility bill payments. Since this service by Mobilink is new, it will be a while before detailed review can be made. Green & White covered it where Osama shared this thoughts about this new offering:

From a business point-of-view, Mobilink has played a smart move here - as the telecom industry gradually kills off voice and starts to find more innovative and culturally relevant value-added-services for consumers, having control over a payment system backbone will be a significant advantage. Next they would have to invest in a R & D platform for Value-added-services and unleash it on our growing community of entrepreneurs and a spike in innovative third-party applications (similar to what has happened recently with Facebook) is likely to result.

For further background information you can see my past posts about mobile commerce.

ERRA: Telecom After the Quake

Published by Babar Bhatti on October 8, 2007 under Consumer Rights, Digital Divide, Disaster Management, Emerging Markets Telecom, Telecommunications

erra_logo.gifOne of the impacts of the earthquake of Oct 8 2005 was that the telecommunication infrastructure and services in the northern areas were updated. ERRA (Earthquake Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Authority) was formed and issued a vision and strategy for the telecom services in the area. The telecom strategy by ERRA, available online, gives a summary of the damage to telecom infrastructure in 2005 and the proposed approach to new work. By the way, the website has a wealth of information about the area, progress of the projects and statistics about many reconstructions sectors.

azad-kashmir.jpgOne of the important related development has been the change in policy regarding licencing of services as covered in this post by Tee Emm. Now all major operators are allowed to offer their services in the earthquake impacted areas. Telenor has been expanding its network to the Northern areas and has been doing extensive marketing about it as well. Earlier this year CMPak also signed on an agreement for providing services in AJK and Northern areas. Overall these changes provides better choices for the people which is their inherent consumer right and narrows down the digital divide a notch. It may not be much consolation for the people who lost so much 2 years ago but its part of the bigger struggle to provide them better services to keep going.

Related Link: October 8th 2005, Remembered