Latest News:
  Utiba: Micro Muscle
  The World's First International Mobile to Mobile Remittance Service
  Filipinos can SMS money home, Indons to follow suit soon
  Maxis Aims At Foreign Workers For New Money Remittance Service E-mail
  Vodafone taps into remittance market
  GCash unveils inter-exchange m-commerce hub at 3GSM World Congress
  New Conductors Speed Global Flows of Money: Cellphones Make Transfers Faster, Cheaper
  MOBILE MAGIC, NET GAIN
  Globes Innovative G-Cash wins back-to-back international awards
  Utiba launches first borderless top-up with BridgeMobile
  Globe Telecom unveils newest service, G-Cash
  Airtel launches EasyCharge
   
Utiba: Micro Muscle
31 May 2007 View PDF document
The World's First International Mobile to Mobile Remittance Service
31 May 2007 View PDF document
Filipinos can SMS money home, Indons to follow suit soon
31 May 2007 thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of Filipino workers can now send money to their families and other dependants in the Philippines within seconds through mobile phone service messaging, and without going through banks.

Maxis Communications Berhad and the Philippine's telecommunications company Globe Telecom yesterday launched the world's first international mobile-to-mobile money transfer service, between the two countries.

The service, approved by Bank Negara, allows users to transfer up to PHP6,500 (RM500) per transaction at RM5 per transaction and 15 sen for each SMS, half the transaction fee of banks, said Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das.

Up to RM10,000 can be transferred per day at no charge to recipients who receive the money in pesos based on daily exchange rates.

The service will benefit 20,000 Filipino Maxis subscribers in Malaysia, Das said.

"The service is part of a larger picture of us being a strong service provider for the immigrant population," he said.

"We will not replace the banking institutions for international remittance but provide customers an alternative solution to sending money in micro arrangements, at a lower fee and a greater convenience," he said.

The service will also be made available for Indonesians in Malaysia before the end of the month and other countries later in the year, he said.

It is estimated that there are 150,000 Indonesian mobile phone users in Malaysia, he said.

On receipt of an SMS confirmation, a recipient can withdraw the money through any of Globe's GCash 6,000 outlets in the Philippines, as well as rural banks, pawnshops and retail outlets and pay for things and tuition fees in some places without cashing it out, said Globe's head of consumer business Ferdz De la Cruz.

Maxis Aims At Foreign Workers For New Money Remittance Service E-mail
30 May 2007 Bernama.com Business

Maxis Aims At Foreign Workers For New Money Remittance Service E-mail this news to a friend Printable version of this news

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's leading telecommunication services provider Maxis Communications Bhd aspires to become a strong service provider for foreign workers in Malaysia by end of this year, its chief executive officer Sandip Das said today.

Speaking at the launching of the world's first international mobile to mobile money transfer service, he said the new service from Maxis and Philippines' Globe Telecom, will enable Filipino workers to perform cross-border money transfer from Ringgit to Pesos instantly.

Globe Telecom is Philippines's second largest telecommunication services provider.

As part of Maxis's M-money mobile service, the international mobile remittance service will assist its customers to remit M-money in Ringgit value to Globe Telecom's G-cash customers in the Philippines.

In the initial period, the service will allow customers to send remittance up to RM500 per transaction to friends and family in the Philippines via Maxis' M-money.

Upon receiving confirmation on the mobile phone, the recipient can immediately withdraw the transferred amount in Pesos through the Globe's G-cash service at 6,000 outlets in the Philippines.

Maxis, which received the approval from Bank Negara to carry out the service, is also looking into making this system accessible to Indonesia before the end of the month, Sandip said.

The service is expected to capture a large portion of the international mobile remittance business as the largest outbound remittance corridors from Malaysia comes from Philippines and Indonesia.

Quoting industry statistics, Sandip said recorded remittances transferred by Filipino and Indonesian foreign workers in Malaysia has been estimated at US$4.2 billion a year.

-- BERNAMA

Vodafone taps into remittance market
13 Feb 2007 by Christine Seib

Kenyans without bank accounts will be able to access money sent from the UK as part of a joint assault by Vodafone, the telecoms group, and Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank, on the lucrative global remittances market.

Vodafone's UK customers will be able to send money via their mobile telephones or the internet, which can then be collected in Kenya at a bank or, using a secure voucher, redeemed at phone outlets.

Citigroup will provide the financial services required to make the transaction work.

Kenya will operate as a trial but the phone company said that the service would quickly be extended to Eastern Europe and Asia, most likely becoming available first in Poland and India.

Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, chairman of Citibank Europe, said that the service would provide a cheaper and more secure way for migrant workers to send money home.

Being able to collect cash by phone is likely to be particularly welcomed by recipients who do not have a bank account. Vodafone said that those without banking facilities would recieve via text a voucher and a PIN that they could take to the pay-as-you-go outlets operated by their country’s mobile network provide. All the recipient needs is a mobile phone that can receive texts from any network.

Transferring money by mobile phone is already well established in the Philippines, where Utiba, an Australian technology company, worked with Global Telecom, a Philippines-based telecoms company, to create a service that allows Globe’s customers to send or receive money domestically and internationally.

In Canada, technology company CPNI joined IBM and Computer Sciences Corporation to allow bank customers to make fund transfers by phone to a retail outlet where the recipient can collect the cash.

GCash unveils inter-exchange m-commerce hub at 3GSM World Congress
07 Feb 2007

GCash, the revolutionary award-winning electronic payment system from G-Xchange, Inc. (GXI) - a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom - is making international m-commerce inter-operability a reality with its latest innovation currently showcased at the prestigious 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

GCash first gained worldwide attention when it won in the Best Messaging Service Award category at the 2005 GSM Awards. It is an integrated mobile payment system that transforms the mobile phone into a wallet for secure, fast, convenient, accessible, and low-cost means of making money transfers and micro payments for utility bills, tuition fees, donations, and even prepaid airtime wherever subscribers are in the world. The panel of judges, made up of the world's biggest names in telecommunications, hailed GCash as "a promisingly innovative and convenient m-commerce solution."

Now, GCash lives up to that promise by unveiling the first direct inter-operable m-commerce platform expanding its capability by creating an inter-exchange hub that allows instant multi-language and multi-currency money transfer to partner mobile operators around the world.

GXI and its technology partner, UTIBA, joined hands with mobile operators Singtel in Singapore, CSL in Hong Kong, Maxis in Malaysia, and a Norwegian telco to showcase a Proof of Concept highlighting the interconnection of various m-commerce platforms to enable mobile subscribers to make remittances using their mobile phones almost anywhere in the world via SMS through their local SIMs.

The execution with Singtel and CSL, for example, is a Cross Border Single Currency Remittance platform that lets Singapore and Hong Kong based subscribers send Philippine Pesos to and from a Globe Telecom or Touch Mobile subscriber.

For the 3GSM showcase, GCash also interconnects with Maxis and a Norwegian telco to showcase the ability of its inter-exchange hub to link various m-commerce platforms around the world. With this service, Maxis customers would be able to remit Maxis E-Money to GCash users in the Philippines via Cross Border Multi Currency Remittance. The transfer would be initiated through SMS for remittance in Malaysian Ringgit and received by the Globe or Touch Mobile customer in Philippine Pesos.

"This hub concept would allow us both to make our innovative services available cross-border," said Maxis m-commerce product manager Claire Featherstone.

"GCash has once again raised the standard of technological innovation towards uplifting people's lives. The direct connection between various m-commerce platforms globally through our inter-exchange hub is a crucial step towards making m-commerce accessible to everyone everywhere," said GXI president Rizza Maniego-Eala.

The showcase was also made possible with the collaboration of GXI's technology partner UTIBA, a company dedicated to creating innovative software solutions for Mobile Operators and Financial Institutions.

"UTIBA's partnership with Globe Telecom and its subsidiary, GXI, has produced creative solutions that enable more people to make payments and other mobile transactions simply and intuitively, anytime and anywhere," said UTIBA CEO Richard Matotek.

Simultaneous with this showcase, Globe Telecom is also participating in a GSM Association program to develop a global hub that will link up regional or national mobile remittance systems to enable people to transfer money across the world as easily as they can make an international telephone call.

"The Philippines is at the forefront of innovation around the convergence of mobile and financial services," said Ben Soppitt, strategic initiatives director of the GSMA, "and we are delighted that Globe Telecom is bringing its expertise and experience in this exciting field to support the development of our global mobile money transfer program."

The 3GSM World Congress, the world's largest exhibition and congress for the mobile industry, is a highly-anticipated annual event that gathers the top GSM telecommunications operators from around the world.

New Conductors Speed Global Flows of Money: Cellphones Make Transfers Faster, Cheaper
03 Oct 2006
The Washington Post
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, October 3, 2006; A01

MANILA -- It was 10:33 p.m. when Dulce Amor Bandoy's cellphone beeped with her favorite kind of message.
"You have received 1,321.00 of G-Cash," read the text on her phone's glowing screen.
That meant her uncle in London had just deposited 1,321 Philippine pesos -- about $26 -- into her Globe Telecom cellphone account, which Bandoy uses like a bank. "My phone is now my wallet," said Bandoy, 29, a cheerful woman with a sparkling smile.
The cellphone-based system that conveys cash between Bandoy and her uncle has the potential to revolutionize the way hundreds of billions of dollars are moved around the world, according to experts who study global cash flows.
Cash that relatives working abroad send home is not only vital support for millions of families but a cornerstone of national economies from Mexico to Lesotho. The World Bank estimates that global remittances last year topped a quarter of a trillion dollars, with $13 billion flowing into the Philippines alone.
But traditional methods of moving money in small, personal amounts can be slow and costly. Western Union, the world's largest money-transfer business, would charge $22 in fees on a $26 transfer from London to Manila. Banks also demand substantial fees and often take two or three days to complete a transfer.
With cellphone use booming across the developing world, from the open deserts of Africa to Bandoy's densely populated neighborhood in sultry Manila, handsets that cost as little as $30 are enabling struggling nations to leapfrog past the need for land-line phones and ATMs.
The money transfer to the four-inch gold Nokia in Bandoy's hip pocket is a glimpse of the future, said Dilip Ratha, an economist and remittance expert with the World Bank in Washington. "I really think this is the way forward," he said. "In three years I would expect to see this all over the world."
Eugene Bandoy, 50, is a Filipino architect who lives in London and helps other expatriates buy property back home. When potential buyers want to take a look at condominiums or houses in the Philippines, his niece shows them around. He sends her cash to cover her expenses. But that can be frustrating and expensive, because the fees for wiring small sums can nearly equal the amount being sent.
So in November, when Bandoy heard at a Filipino community event that he could send up to $200 through his cellphone for as little as $7, he eagerly signed up.
"It's not just cheaper for me," he said, wearing a whimsical tie covered with drawings of Volkswagen bugs and a white cap spun from Scottish cashmere. "It's more convenient for Dulce -- she can pick up the money at a shopping mall late at night long after banks are closed." She could also use any of 1,500 other locations, including department stores and licensed pawnshops.
Last month, Bandoy needed his niece to go to Quezon City, just outside Manila, to show a condominium to a woman who works in London but was home on vacation and interested in buying. But Dulce, like so many people struggling to get by in this country of almost 90 million people, said she didn't have the $1 for a bus or train ride to meet the client.
She called her uncle and told him, "I need money or I can't meet her."
So on the afternoon of Sept. 11, Bandoy walked up the steps to a second-floor office in a stately office building in Kensington, central London. There, Gen Ashley was waiting in the one-room office of her remittance company, Twilight Express.
Ashley, a sharp, friendly businesswoman, has thousands of customers, who among them send about $2 million a month home to the Philippines. Recently, she said, several hundred of them have begun asking her to send money through the two giant Philippine phone companies, SMART and Globe Telecom.
"It is definitely growing," she said.
Ashley pointed out that some banks are responding with more competitive prices. And, she said, many people prefer to continue sending money the way they always have; for some, that means paying money-transfer services to have cash hand-delivered to their parents' doorsteps. "People are not used to getting money through their phone," Ashley said. "Some are uncomfortable with the idea. They worry, 'What if I lose my phone?'"
In recent years, growing numbers of people in the Philippines, as well as in countries as diverse as Japan and Zambia, have begun using new features on their mobile phones to pay bills, buy goods and transfer cash to relatives in the same country.
But international money transfers by this method have been slower to flourish, in part because regulators are trying to assure this new channel won't be used to launder money. Tightening the monitoring of international cash flows has become a prime goal of U.S. authorities who are trying to prevent terrorist attacks.
The Philippines, noted for embracing cellphone innovations and heavily reliant on remittances, has plowed ahead on its own. For now, however, phone companies are limiting international transfers to relatively small amounts, such as $200.
Globe Telecom officials said Filipino workers in 17 countries, including the United States, can now use their phones to send money home. In the United States, they said, the service recently linked up with remittance centers in California, Nevada and Texas.
In the London office, Bandoy turned over the cash in the pound equivalent of the amount he needed to get to his niece, plus a $7.50 commission (Globe says that it collects 50 cents of that). Ashley began twirling her fingers across her computer keyboard. Bandoy had already registered with her, producing his passport as identification, an anti-laundering precaution.
She clicked on his name and up popped his account information. Dulce Amor Bandoy was listed as his recipient, and Ashley scrolled down to her cellphone number and clicked.
She typed in the amount he was sending and the day's exchange rate for the British pound and Philippine peso. Then she hit the "send" button to move the order to the phone company. Seconds later, a message appeared on her screen, confirming the transfer.
It was 3:32 in the afternoon in London -- 10:32 p.m. in Manila.
At that moment, 7,000 miles away, Dulce Amor Bandoy was sitting in the rented room she shares with three other women. A charcoal sketch of herself -- a self-portrait -- hung on her little slice of the wall.
Bandoy, who stands 4-foot-11, has recently tried to turn her savvy with cellphones into an informal repair business. At 10:33 p.m., she was intently focused on reprogramming a customer's black Nokia cellphone when her own phone, sitting on her bedside table, pinged with the much-anticipated message.
Ashley's order in London had flowed over a computer network to a Globe Telecom office in the Philippines. There it generated the local text message to her phone. "I was so relieved when I read that the money had arrived," she recalled. "I was thinking, 'What am I going to do if it doesn't?' "
Next morning, she tucked her phone into her cream-colored cargo pants and headed to Robinsons Mall, walking past a supermarket advertising that customers could pay for their groceries via their phone accounts. She climbed up to the third level, past McDonald's, T.G.I. Friday's and Starbucks, and walked into the glitzy Globe phone store, where customers can browse the flashiest new phone models and pick up G-cash, as the company calls money transferred via phone.
The music and lights of the place were much more to Bandoy's taste than the numbing silence of a bank lobby, she said, noting that this store stayed open as late at 10 p.m., while many banks close at 3.
She quickly wrote her name, phone number and address on a "cash-out" form and handed it to the clerk. She would take out only 1,200 of the 1,321 pesos and use some of the remainder to pay her phone bill. The clerk looked up her account on his computer and then sent a text message to her phone that read, "To Cash out 1,200.00 of G-Cash from Globe Robinson's Place, Reply with your MPIN."
She typed her four-digit mobile personal identification number into the phone pad and hit reply. The clerk had the confirmation he needed. Less than five minutes after arriving at the store and after paying 26 cents -- a 1 percent fee -- she walked out with about $24 worth of Philippine pesos.
She hurried out of the mall and hailed a taxi to rush her to the train station.
By 10:30 a.m., she was walking a potential buyer through new condominiums in a middle-class area of Quezon City.
"She loved it! She signed the contract!" Bandoy recalled later.
That night, she said, she treated herself to a celebratory dinner of fried fish, rice and a Coke in her room. Before she dropped off to sleep, she said, she did what she does every night: She placed her cellphone right next to her on her pillow.
MOBILE MAGIC, NET GAIN
05 April 2006
The Telegraph
Airtel subscribers can now buy their Hello Tunes and ringtones from retail counters across the city by browsing through a catalogue and paying upfront.
Airtel Easy Music service, available for all prepaid and postpaid subscribers, offers genres ranging from Rabindrasangeet to RD Burman, Nazrulgeeti to Bhajan and Adhunik to Bangla Band. Another special offering is Indian Classical Music.
All a user needs to do is walk into any Airtel Easy Music outlet and choose his/her favourite song as Hello Tune or ringtone from over 18,000 songs in 20 languages. The retailer will download the desired song to the customer's mobile in 60 seconds.

The Telegraph (India)
Sunday, April 02, 2006

Globes Innovative G-Cash wins back-to-back international awards
17 June 2005
Globe G-Cash, the breakthrough mobile commerce service from Globe Telecom, again wins acollades, bagging not one, but three international awards back to back: The "Most Innovative Mobile Operator Service" at the Asian MobileNews Awards in Singapore, and "Best M-Commerce Application or Service" at the Global Messaging Awards in London. Both accolades were awarded June 15. These awards closely follow the GSM Association's (GSMA) award for "Best Mobile Messaging Service" recently awarded in February 2005, in Cannes, France.

Asian MobileNews is a Singapore-based publication enjoying international readership. Its annual awards recognize outstanding performance by Asian telco operators, services and mobile phones, with winners determined through votes cast by readers. Global Messaging Awards is a prestigious body based in London.

G-Cash was awarded by an international panel of judges. Total entries across all categories on five continents, reflecting the global nature of the industry and the broadscale international participation in the even. G-Cash "Most Innovative Mobile Operator Service" and "Best M-commerce Application or Service" awards were grounded on the service's contribution to expanding telco borders and its laying the foundation for mass adoption of mobile commerce.

G-Cash uses the appropriate medium - the already ubiquitous mobile phone and SMS. It supports transactional mobility, being the first cashless and cardless offer in the Philippines. It addresses commerce needs of the broadscale population via fund transfers and micropayments functionalities. It is life enhancing, benefiting the user, merchant partner, and economy.

In receiving the Asia Mobile News Award for "Most Innovative Mobile Operator Service", Andrew Buay, Chief Operating Advisor of Globe Telecom cited, "Globe Telecom is extremely excited and passionate about the potential of G-Cash. It is being deployed in ways we never dreamed of when it was first launched... We are confident that it will not only change, but importantly, will enhance the way people live and the way businesses will be run in the future." Mr Buay also thanked Utiba for its partnership with Globe in developing the G-cash solution.

Globe Telecom president and CEO Gerardo C. Ablazza Jr. added, "The telecom industry is truly one that has no walls. We are excited at the opportunity to continuously challenge boundaries, being at the forefront of innovation, and truly making great things possible for the Filipino."

Mr Ablazza cited "We share Globe G-Cash's GSM Association Award for Best Mobile Messaging Service with our platform partner, Utiba Mobility. Our Globe G-Cash service is the result of a successful collaboration across the entire organization of Globe and was powered by our partnership with Utiba. They helped us build the platform of Globe G-Cash from concept to production. With their wide experience and expertise in e-Commerce, mobile banking and application software development, they were excellent consultants when we put together the blueprint for our M-Commerce solution. As we have also counted on them as partners in our Over-the-Air Prepaid Reload system (Autoload MAX), we were confident that our platform would not only support secure financial transactions but a high-volume messaging capacity which is characteristic of our P2P SMS and our Autoload MAX service. We look forward to working with Utiba for further enhancements to the Globe G-Cash service as well as other future new services."

The Philippine Star
Friday June 17, 2005
Utiba launches first borderless top-up with BridgeMobile
13 June 2005
LogicaCMG today announced that it has been chosen as a solutions and systems integration partner for Bridge Mobile, an alliance encompassing eight leading Asia Pacific mobile operators, to go live with its inaugural regional mobile services offering.

Bridge Mobile alliance, serving a combined subscriber base of 64 million, aims to facilitate a regional mobile infrastructure and a common service platform. This platform will enable the creation and seamless delivery of regional mobile services across all geographies and enhance the quality of service to roaming subscribers of the member operators. The eight operators in the alliance are SingTel Mobile (Singapore), SingTel Optus (Australia), Airtel (India), Maxis (Malaysia), Telkomsel (Indonesia), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and CSL (Hong Kong).

One inaugural service is Bridge Prepaid, which will enable the alliance member operators' pre-paid subscribers, for the first time, to conveniently and quickly top-up their pre-paid account while roaming in any of the member countries. Currently this is only possible in the originating country, where a pre-paid subscriber is required to carry extra top-up cards, or ask someone in their home country to activate a top-up.

LogicaCMG is setting up the underlying core infrastructure with a Common Access Gateway and a Wholesale Billing and Settlement System, as well as enabling the initial service offering of Bridge Prepaid. The Access Gateway comprises LogicaCMG's Open Messaging Gateway (OMG) and Aepona Causeway - the standards-based integration backbone for convergent networks. LogicaCMG partnered with Intec for the billing and settlement systems and selected Utiba for the Bridge Prepaid solution.

Dr. Patrick Sim, CEO of Bridge Mobile said: "LogicaCMG's solutions will help our member operators provide an enhanced international mobile experience and enable our members to commercialise new services and technologies faster. The solution allows us to set new standards of innovation, with a faster time to market in order to support the rapidly evolving business needs. Bridge Mobile is now able to facilitate the launch of more innovative products and services on a regional basis to create competitive differentiation for our member operators."

Boudewijn Pesch, managing director, of LogicaCMG global telecoms in Asia, added: "LogicaCMG has unparalleled expertise working with more than 300 of the world's operators in some 130 countries, and we have a strong presence and solid reputation with each of the individual operators that form the Bridge Mobile alliance. This gave the alliance members the confidence to invest in our solutions. We consider this a significant partnership win, which demonstrates that LogicaCMG is continuing to shape the Asia Pacific market and showcase our expertise in systems integration and innovative solutions. LogicaCMG is pleased to have partnered with Sun Microsystems, Aepona, Utiba and Intec to deliver a tightly integrated and coherent solution to Bridge Mobile."

"Sun is excited to be partnering with LogicaCMG and Bridge Mobile. The innovative services by Bridge Mobile will benefit not only the member operators, but will also set the benchmark for other operators around the world," said Lionel Lim, President, Asia South, Sun Microsystems. "Sun has a strong and successful history in the telecommunications industry and we are committed to delivering an open, integrated and highly scalable infrastructure for Bridge Mobile to respond to customers' demands for faster and more reliable mobile services."

Justin Ho, COO of Utiba, said: "This new service is an exciting innovation by Bridge Mobile. Mobile communication is a universal tool for business and consumers and, with the majority of subscribers in Asia holding pre-paid accounts, this expands their regional mobility. Utiba is delighted about providing top-up solutions in collaboration with LogicaCMG to Bridge Mobile to further enhance its leadership position in top-up and mCommerce markets."

Liam McQuillan, Aepona's CEO, commented on the deal: "Within such a short timeframe after the opening of our regional office in South East Asia, we are delighted to be working with LogicaCMG and Bridge Mobile. This is a further endorsement for Aepona Causeway and clearly illustrates how the newest and most dynamic mobile service providers are creating new hybrid applications by combining our technology with expertise from LogicaCMG and other partners. Aepona's Causeway is becoming an essential architecture for operators that want to build 'blended' voice and data services based on current and future network assets. Bridge Mobile, by adopting Aepona Causeway, has an excellent platform upon which it can integrate all its network resources and build converged services in the future."

Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd
Bridge Mobile Alliance, Asia Pacific's largest mobile joint venture company, was formed on 3 November 2004. Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd, a Singapore-incorporated company, is the commercial vehicle facilitating the development of a regional mobile infrastructure and service platform, as well as regional research and development collaborations.

The joint venture company comprises top mobile powerhouses: Airtel (India), CSL (Hong Kong), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), SingTel Optus (Australia), SingTel Mobile (Singapore), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and Telkomsel (Indonesia). Currently, it boasts of a combined base of over 60 million subscribers in the region.

Together, the group will invest up to US$30million to US$40million over the next three years to build and establish a regional mobile infrastructure that delivers seamless cross-border services for customers and develop innovative technology solutions to achieve greater economies of scales for member operators.

With the potential to reach 300million subscribers represented by key markets in the Asia Pacific region in the near future, Bridge will continue to grow undisputedly in both strength and size as the largest multi-market mobile alliance in the region.
Globe Telecom unveils newest service, G-Cash
19 October 2004
In a bid to further penetrate the lucrative mass market and improve subscriber loyalty, Ayala-owned Globe Telecom unveiled yesterday its newest service called G-Cash, considered a breakthrough in mobile commerce by transforming one's cellphone into a mobile wallet.

Globe president and chief executive officer Gerardo Ablaza said that with this new service the company also hopes to strengthen its hold in the provincial markets.

He explained that with Globe's recent product and service innovations and increased marketing efforts; more and more of its subscribers are coming from outside of Metro Manila. "If you look at the second and third quarter 2004 numbers, they indicate that we are achieving well in the mass market, which we also attribute to a significantly wider coverage of our network that has become more accessible to the masses", Ablaza said.

Before, about 60 percent of Globe's subscribers came from Metro Manila. "Now, a higher percentage is coming from outside Metro Manila, especially from the new subscriber additions," he noted. About 95 percent of Globe's subscribers are also prepaid subscribers.

Using G-Cash, Globe Handyphone and Touch Mobile subscribers can make purchases or payments in accredited establishments. The partner outlets include Mercury Drug, National Bookstore, Supper Ferry, Burger King, Max's, Metro Gaisano, ABS CBN Interactive to name a few.

This new service also allows subscribers and non-subscribers to send domestic and international remittances to Globe and Touch Mobile subscribers in the Philippines. Recipients can in turn transact using this mobile wallet or exchange the stored value for cash in designated outlets.

"This is a milestone in our country's mobile commerce universe and a major achievement for the company. We rank it up there, with Globe's introduction of SMS (text messaging) in the Philippines, as we believe it will have the same far-reaching, life-changing effect on all of us," Ablaza said.

Ablaza, however, pointed out that the main revenue stream for Globe is the amount of text messaging fees that will be earned from being a transporter or carrier of messages. "This service can also help minimize churn as this will promote stickiness or loyalty among our subscribers," he said.

He explained that G-Cash helps expand the business reach of its merchant partners by facilitating business transactions via mobile phone, thereby eliminating limits of time, as value is transferred at the spend of text.

"It transcends boundaries of space, as the service crosses domestic and international borders. It also creates a new revenue potential for merchants with mobile payments options creating new selling opportunities. It also accelerates the evolution of m-commerce, giving consumers a convenient, easy-to-use mobile payment option," Ablaza pointed out.

In addition, Ablaza noted that Globe's merchant partners will be able to reach out to their customers beyond the limits of time and space because G-Cash is going to be in every corner of the country someday, just like Globe Autoload Max with it's more than 500,000 retail partners.

Globe's chief executive revealed that Globe's Share a Load transactions now average about 800,000 to a million per day, while Autoload Max is about 1.6 million transactions per day. As much as 80 percent of Globe prepaid loads are now being made via Autoload Max as compared to the previous prepaid load cards while in the case of Touch Mobile, around 92 percent of loads are made via this system.

The G-Cash mobile wallet can store a minimum of P1 to a maximum of P10,000 while maximum transactions per day is P40,000. Subscribers will be charged the usual text messaging fee of P1 per message for G-Cash transactions although transactions at certain authorized outlets may be subject to processing fees. Globe business centres and Globelines payments and service centres will charge a service fee of one percent of the total transaction with a minimum fee of P10 for cash-in or cash-out transactions.

The Philippine Star Business
Tuesday October 19, 2004
   
Airtel launches EasyCharge

AirTel, India’s leading mobile service, has announced the launch of a value-for-money, prepaid start-up pack priced at Rs. 99. Unlike the low value packs offered by other mobile operators, the AirTel Rs. 99 pack comes with Zero daily rental nor any monthly fee, says a company spokesperson.

In-addition, the AirTel Rs 99 pack also offers customers the advantage of making outgoing calls to mobile phones within Chennai for as low as 99 paise/ minute and send local SMS at just 50 paise. That’s not all, AirTel customers buying the new pack also get a recharge coupon worth Rs 54 absolutely free.

The AirTel Rs 99 pack comes with a validity of 14 days and packs in other benefits like making calls to select five friends and family numbers at special rates. On calling a select mobile phone number such calls would be charged at just 50 paise/minute. In case of calls being made to a select landline phone, the call would be charged at just 99 paise/minute.

P. Swaminathan, CEO & Director, (Mobility) South Hub, Bharti Cellular limited, said, “AirTel’s new start up pack has been launched with a view to not only provide value for money offer to its customers but also to expand the entire mobile telephony market in Chennai.”

The recently launched AirTel EasyCharge has received good response from its prepaid customers. With AirTel EasyCharge, consumers across India are discovering the freedom to recharge for as low as Rs. 54, for any amount between Rs. 54 and Rs. 9999, at anytime and from anywhere. No longer do consumers have to recharge with fixed denomination paper coupons. AirTel is the only mobile service to offer the complete freedom of recharge in entire prepaid segment in the country.

Airtel deployed Utiba's U:Freedom product to enable them to deploy secure top using only a handset. This allows vouchers to be removed from the distribution channel, and allow secure recharge and greater convenience for its subscribers.