Airtel Payments Bank, AXA Life to Launch Life Insurance Plan

In India, Airtel Payments Bank—the mobile-money subsidiary of operator Bharti Airtel—and Bharti AXA Life Insurance have partnered to offer a government-backed life insurance plan. The plan, called Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), was designed to increase penetration of life insurance services among the underinsured. The PMJJBY service, underwritten by Bharti AXA Life Insurance, offers an INR 200,000 (US $2,8692) coverage for a nominal premium of INR 330.00 (US $4.72) per year and can be purchased by all existing or new Airtel Payments Bank savings bank account holders age 18 to 50.
 
At first, PMJJBY will be available at 100,000 Airtel Payments Bank Banking Points across the country. Airtel Payments Bank plans to expand the service availability to over 500,000 banking points to enable the product to reach remote areas of the country.
 
Mobile-money services are now offered very widely by mobile operators, either on their own or in partnership with commercial banks or other financial institutions, and they have proved popular and useful in many markets, especially those with a relatively large proportion of unbanked persons or those with less than average access to financial services. In such environments, operators have stepped into the breach, allowing customers to have more powerful and effective financial lives while also seamlessly integrating their mobile services with financial services in ways that strengthen the operators’ brands and build customer loyalty.
 
The next step appears to be expanding the notion of mobile-based financial services beyond simply transferring money or paying phone bills. Life insurance is one financial product that has potentially universal appeal while falling outside the typical purview of both operators and banks. By partnering with AXA, a global insurance provider, Airtel is now able to help not only the unbanked but also the uninsured.
 
The per-year cost of the insurance premium is extremely low and therefore should be appropriate for the target demographic, which is basically the poor and uninsured. Of course, the amount of the coverage itself is also not very large, but again, it is likely to fit the circumstances of those who would buy it. By providing this insurance, we think Airtel could achieve something that goes beyond simply driving revenue and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty—although those are worthy aims. In the larger sense, the operator could increase the sense of financial inclusion among those who traditionally have been more or less marginalized in the Indian economy. That, in turn, could motivate those people to participate in more different kinds of financial transactions and to become, in general, bigger consumers of more products—including both traditional and value-added mobile services.
 
As the Indian economy is growing significantly now and welcoming participants from a broader section of the population than ever before, this initiative seems well timed.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.  

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Xiaomi to Launch first Android One Smartphone in India

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has unveiled a new flagship device for the Indian market, its first smartphone running the Android One OS developed by Google for emerging markets. The new phone, called Mi A1, will be offered with 200 GB free data from Airtel and will sell for INR 14,999.00 (US $234.00) starting on 12 September via Xiaomi’s website and the local e-commerce site Flipkart. Available in a choice of pink, gold or black metal finish, the Mi A1 runs the basic version of Android, with few pre-loaded apps (similar to Google’s own devices), but will get an update to the new Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of 2017. Xiaomi said it will also be among the first phones to get Android P next year.
 
With dual 12-megapixel back cameras, the Mi A1 comes with Xiaomi’s camera app as well as Google Photos with unlimited storage. Other features include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. In addition, the phone will get the latest Google software, such as Google Assistant.
 
The Mi A1 will be available in other markets including Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam and Taiwan, according to Google. The company first launched Android One in India in 2014 to bring affordable smartphones to new market. Phones running the software are also available in markets ranging from Japan to Turkey.
 
This new phone marks a serious improvement in power for Android One devices, and it demonstrates the extent to which Google intends to dominate emerging markets such as India, where many users are new to mobile data but eager to plunge in.
 
Android One is a basic system, appropriately enough for developing economies, but nonetheless powerful—and now even more so, given the new device’s capacities. The price point is still relatively affordable but is still about US $50 more than other Android One devices. Google and Xiaomi (which has made a specialty of providing budget-oriented but sophisticated mobile devices to the developing world) are calculating that the Indian market has matured to the point that enough consumers will be willing to spend a little extra to get a better, more durable device. The promised OS updates should further incentivize Indian customers who anticipate extending themselves further in the use of mobile data.
 
From an MNO point of view, the participation of Airtel is significant. The operator has clearly made a good strategic move in entering into a partnership to become the sole provider of the Mi A1, and we believe that such exclusive deals are on general principles worth pursuing. With their ability to draw in new customers who want the new devices, they have the potential to take subscribers away from competing operators, and can burnish the brand of the operator.
 
Beyond that, we note that the Xiaomi–Airtel deal comes with a free data offer of 200 GB. While this is apparently a one-time-only, non-renewable offer, it is still a generous amount of data with which to get started and put the Mi A1 through its paces. We consider it a savvy move that will help the operator get its customers used to consuming more and more data and therefore become, in the long run, better sources of revenue for the operator.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. 

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Facebook Launches Low-Cost WiFi in Kenya

Facebook has activated low-cost internet access in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, according to a report. The launch, which is part of the U.S.-based internet giant’s “Express Wi-Fi” program, is a joint project with Surf, a Kenyan ISP, and went live about three weeks ago.

The service is currently available in Nairobi and surrounding areas. Express Wi-Fi offers a 10-day package in which users get 100 MB free per day, after which they need to top up through recharge agents. Daily internet bundles cost KES 10.00 (US $0.10) for 40 MB and KES 20.00 (US $0.19) for 100 MB, while weekly Express Wi-Fi bundles cost KES 50.00 (US $0.48) for 300 MB and KES 100.00 (US $0.96) for 500 MB. Monthly bundles cost KES 200.00 (US $1.93) for 1.25 GB and KES 500.00 (US $4.81) for 3 GB. Surf Kenya CEO Mark Summer said that the prices are subject to change subsequent to the launch.


Express Wi-Fi is Facebook’s latest attempt—under its Internet.org initiative—to spread internet access in developing countries, the intent, of course, being to add users to Facebook. Before Kenya, it recently launched in Uganda, Nigeria and India. A previous program, called Free Basics, ran into trouble because by offering zero-rated access to Facebook and selected other sites, it ran afoul of net neutrality principles and was banned by India’s national regulator in February 2016. Express Wi-Fi is different in that it will not zero-rate and there will be no free connectivity.

The question is, will Express Wi-Fi be a genuine threat to mobile operators in Kenya? Its data is certainly much cheaper than that offered by the MNOs: Safaricom sells a 65 MB daily internet bundle for KES 50.00 (US $0.48), and Airtel and Orange charge the same amount for even less data, 50 MB and 40 MB, respectively. However, it is by no means clear what quality level Facebook and Surf will be able to deliver, what the actual footprint of the service will look like and how many hotspots there will be.

Even if Express Wi-Fi delivers on its promises, we believe that there are things the MNOs in Kenya can offer potential customers that Facebook cannot, at least at this point. Beyond the idea of cellular data versus Wi-Fi, operators in the African markets have discovered the power of mobile money services—notably Safaricom’s M-Pesa—as a way of attracting and keeping customers, and from all the evidence we can see, access to mobile money is going to continue to be a very important priority for users in this region. Stand-alone, non-MNO data services, since they lack this incentive, may have a hard time catching on despite the low initial pricing.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Indian Regulator Bans Zero-Rated Services

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a ruling that zero-rated data services will be banned in the country. The rules state, in part, “No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.” Violators will be fined INR 50,000 (US $734.00) per day. While this dictum (which makes permanent a temporary measure put in place in December 2015) is general in nature and singles out no entity, in practical terms its principal target is Facebook’s FreeBasics service. Offered under the company’s global Internet.org initiative and in partnership with Indian mobile operator Reliance, this service offers users access to Facebook without it counting against their data allotments. TRAI’s announcement comes after months of criticism of Facebook by industry participants and net-neutrality advocates in India. It also follows a campaign by Facebook called “Save FreeBasics,” which created controversy and provoked more opposition than support. By issuing this ruling, TRAI has apparently decided that net neutrality is more important than spreading the internet throughout the country. Facebook’s FreeBasics was created to serve the internet giant’s stated goal of increasing access to the internet by making data available to emerging users who otherwise might not be able to afford it—or at least to incentivize them to use mobile data more than they ordinarily would. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees Internet.org as a public service (although ultimately a revenue driver), but it seems that Facebook miscalculated in assuming that FreeBasics would be seen as a disinterested contribution to India’s welfare. In a sense, TRAI may be responding to public opinion in ruling against Facebook; the negative reaction to the “Save FreeBasics” effort indicates that the U.S.-based internet company has generated less goodwill in India than it had hoped.  Reliance’s competitors, such as market leader Airtel, will doubtless appreciate the ruling. The question remains, though, whether TRAI’s ruling truly helps the Indian data ecosystem. This is an emerging market in which a rapidly growing number of customers are using data for the first time. While we sympathize with TRAI’s desire that they not be exploited or misled by MNOs or content providers and that fair competition be encouraged, we wonder whether an initiative that spurs adoption of data services might not be ultimately more beneficial to the Indian market.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile, fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com

Tarifica Mobile Database Alert Service

Tarifica’s Mobile Database now provides customizable alerts that notify subscribers of changes in mobile plans and offers. Instead of having to search through press releases, competitors' websites and advertisements, the Tarifica Mobile Database will instantly alert users whenever a plan with specified features has been added, updated or removed from the database.




Database subscribers can build personalized alerts tailored to their needs and interests based on dozens of distinct plan and offer characteristics.

 Examples include:
¨ New competitive promotions including seasonal specials
¨ Changes to the price of a selected device (such as the iPhone 6 Plus)
¨ Notifications when plans are no longer available
¨ Advisories on the launch of new value added plan partnerships (for example, Netflix or Spotify)
¨ Updates to international and roaming rates to/for selected countries
¨ Changes in service allowances expected to follow network enhancements


Database Example:

The Newsfeed

In addition to receiving email alerts of critical plan changes, this information will also be stored and presented in the subscriber's Newsfeed. This feature displays all of the user's Alerts by category. By selecting an Alert, the subscriber will be able to view every affected plan with indicators for newly added plans, existing plans that were modified and plans that were removed. Subscribers can use this feature to track every development in their market at a high level or leverage it to focus on changes to a single feature or series of plans. Users can also select any of the plans and immediately view every associated rate, feature, service and device.

The Newsfeed Features

¨ Clear indication of new, modified and removed items
¨ Alerts are categorized and listed separately for easy viewing
¨ Each Alert shows the number of notifications received
¨ Alerts can be viewed or hidden with a single click
¨ Date of Alert and the impacted plan names are clearly displayed
¨ All plan details are available by selecting “View Details” (sample shown on the next page)

Database Example:

View Details Display

¨ This view displays all of a plan's rates, included services, devices and associated features
¨ Modified plans are shown in side-by-side format with changes noted via a yellow dot on the left side of the screen, making it easy for users to see the evolution of the market


Database Example:

The Mobile Database

The Tarifica Mobile Database tracks every plan, offer and bundle from every major mobile operator in 66 countries around the world. For each consumer and business plan, the database tracks and displays every rate, included feature and restriction. This information provides subscribers with three critical services.

First, many subscribers rely on the Tarifica Mobile Database to monitor their rivals and the competitive environment in their market. Since the database tracks every mobile plan and displays this information in a clear and standardized fashion, it can free up the hundreds of hours of staff time that were previously invested in collecting this information by combing through competitors' websites, press releases, news articles, and other sources. With the Tarifica Mobile Database, subscribers can simply log on and know that they have comprehensive, up-to-date information at their fingertips.

Second, the Tarifica Mobile Database facilitates deeper and broader analyses of the mobile marketplace, both within a single country and across national boundaries than is possible with other tools. Unlike Excel based solutions for data gathering, the Tarifica Mobile Database is a true relational database and includes tools for easy searching, sorting and graphing of the data on any number of service and pricing elements thus enabling users to complete market research projects that would otherwise have been too resource intensive to undertake. Now, with the alert service subscribers can save even more time by bypassing having to search the database for critical information. In short, the Tarifica Mobile Database is able to turn its wealth of data on mobile plans and prices into actionable and meaningful intelligence through its large array of features and easy-to-use tools.

Third, the database enables users to draw insights from mobile plans around the world. Subscribers can easily view pricing and promotional strategies of innovative new plans and services and compare these across markets. Users can quickly select the specific plans or data needed to rapidly create customized benchmark reports, download this information to Excel and manipulate it as needed, including having the luxury to perform any number of “What if” analyses.



The Tarifica Mobile Database features:

¨ Every plan, rate, bundle, feature and service from hundreds of mobile operators
¨ Easy searching and querying
¨ Ability to graph results and/or download to Excel
¨ Coverage of included devices and prices


Database Example:

Data Sourcing

Tarifica is a research, consulting and data analytics firm that has served mobile and fixed line operators, regulators and consultants for four decades. Throughout this time, our focus has been on tracking the evolution of the market including competitive strategies and potentially disruptive factors in global plans, offers and rates.

Tarifica employs a team of researchers who are constantly reviewing mobile operators' websites, telecom news articles and press releases, and discussing plans with sales representatives. Ultimately, they standardize this information and enter it into the Tarifica Mobile Database. Before new entries are accepted, all of the data must pass a thorough review from a senior researcher to ensure that it is up-to-date, accurate and clearly presented.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com

Airtel Kenya Offers Discount on Bundles Purchased Via Mobile Money

Kenyan mobile operator Airtel has recently offered a five percent discount on the value of UnlimiNet bundles purchased by subscribers using their Airtel Money accounts. After selecting a preferred bundle, customers confirm the purchase by entering their Airtel Money PIN number. They will then be notified of their bundle subscription and discount allocation by an SMS from the operator. “This new offer gives Airtel Money users an opportunity to get more when they choose to purchase UnlimiNet bundles through their Airtel Money accounts,” said Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssseffi.

In 2014, the Kenyan mobile money market moved KES 2.37 trillion (US $24.19 billion) in money transfers. With a population of 44.35 million people and 25.9 million mobile money customers (Kenya’s largest operator, Safaricom, has 20 million subscribers), Kenya has the largest mobile money market in East Africa and is the third-largest telecom market in Africa behind Nigeria and South Africa in terms of investment and number of subscribers. As the number of mobile subscribers continues to grow in Kenya and provide operators with a larger pool to tap into, MNOs are creating appealing data offerings as a way to increase returns on their infrastructure and technology investments. In such developing countries, subscribers’ increased demand for data offerings has been fueled by affordable smartphones (Kenya’s mobile penetration rate was 80.5 percent at the end of Q3 2014) and by specifically satisfying “unbanked” subscriber needs with mobile money offerings. Airtel’s recent discounted offer is something of a twist on the type of promotions that mobile operators are offering. Airtel is trying to incentivize customers to buy traditional mobile services through its nontraditional offering. We believe it will not only bring in revenue for Airtel through its UnlimiNet bundles but may also help the operator increase its number of mobile money subscribers in an attempt to come closer to Safaricom’s mobile money subscriber base.

Tarifica has been the leading provider of telecom pricing information for close to four decades. It maintains the most robust, in-depth and up-to-date pricing database in the industry, which includes mobile and fixed line rates from over 400 operators in 85 countries, as well as historical data going back to 1997. Tarifica also produces reports, surveys, publications and custom analyses. Its clients include operators, regulators, enterprises and consultants in every region of the globe. 

To contact an analyst at Tarifica, click here.

East African States Agree to Cut SMS Roaming Prices

Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have agreed to reduce the cost of sending a text message across the three countries, according to a report. During a regional summit in Kigali, Rwanda, on 6 March, the three partner states agreed that the wholesale price for SMS within the region will not be more than US $0.03 per SMS, including all applicable taxes, and that the retail price will not exceed US $0.06 per SMS. This is less than half the current market rates.   While savings of US $0.03 or thereabouts may not seem very significant, such small sums can be make-or-break for consumers in developing, largely rural areas. East Africa is a "mobile-first" market, in which the entire economy is deeply dependent on mobile telecommunications, despite the fact that many users still have not been able to adopt mobile data usage. In such an environment, SMS and voice bear the preponderance of responsibility for transmitting vital business-related information, so a 50 percent reduction in SMS roaming rates should do a great deal to stimulate regional growth—not only in the telecom sector but beyond—and promote trade across the borders. Last year the three nations agreed on a reduction in roaming voice rates, under their One Network Area agreement. The current agreement on SMS extends that thinking into an area that is perhaps even more economically vital.  Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. Tarifica is a division of T3i Group, a diversified telecom information provider. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com.

Vodacom and Tigo Bring Mobile Money Interoperability to Tanzania

Stockholm-based telecommunications and media company Millicom announced this week that the 4 million customers of its Tigo Pesa mobile money service in Tanzania will be the first in Africa to be able to exchange money with the 6 million customers of Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile money service. A similar launch in 2014 allowed Tigo’s customers to transact similar services with Airtel’s Money and Zantel’s Ezy Pesa customers. “With Tigo Pesa, customers will now have Africa’s first universal mobile money exchange system,” said Millicom Executive Vice President for Africa Arthur Bastings. “They will be able to safely and securely transact with millions more people across the country. It’s another first for Tigo Pesa and Tanzania.” Other Tigo Pesa innovations in the past year include cross-border mobile money exchange with currency conversion included and quarterly returns on Tigo Pesa balances.

Mobile money services offered by the four main MNOs in Tanzania—Airtel, Vodacom, Tigo and Zantel—have been growing steadily for the past five years. In a country where 90 percent of the population do not have bank accounts but cell phone penetration is 75 percent, it is not surprising that roughly half the adult population is already using the mobile money services offered by mobile operators. Last year Tigo, the second-largest operator in Tanzania, was able to broker interoperability deals with the next two smaller operators, Airtel and Zantel, giving their subscribers a wider range for their mobile money transactions. This recent deal with Vodacom, Tanzania’s largest MNO, was brokered after more than a year of negotiations and is a huge win for subscribers.

It is interesting to note that it is the smaller MNOs that stand to gain more from interoperability than the larger ones, as the smaller networks gain access to a proportionately larger subscriber base and the larger ones lose some of their market advantage. However, as we have written before, it is clear that everyone stands to gain from interoperability: the consumers, merchants and government agencies who can make and accept payments more easily, as well as the banks, MNOs and other service providers that can grow revenue by offering more products. So while there will be significant challenges ahead from competing interests in less developed markets, as those mobile money markets mature and MNOs reach the saturation point with their own mobile money users, we expect to see more interoperability deals brokered in other African countries.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues or to speak with the research team: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Facebook Helping to Grow Mobile Data Market, Zuckerberg Says

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the role of his company in increasing access to the internet, in a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The launch of the Internet.org app, which is backed by Facebook, in emerging and developing markets has resulted in nearly 7 million people using mobile data for the first time, he said. Zuckerberg was joined on stage by representatives of some of the operators that have launched the app, which provides free data for connecting to popular internet sites. These included Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Airtel Africa CEO Christian De Faria and Mario Zanotti, SVP of Operations at Tigo parent company Millicom.

According to the Facebook CEO, operators’ rate of acquisition of new data customers increased by at least 40 percent in those countries where the Internet.org app has launched. In Colombia, the number of people using data on Tigo’s network increased by 50 percent, and Tigo’s monthly smartphone sales grew tenfold in Tanzania since the launch of Internet.org. In Zambia, Kenya and Ghana, Airtel saw increases in the number of people using data and data usage itself, and both voice and SMS activity grew across Africa. As Facebook is one of the most popular online services, the company can play a key role in helping mobile operators grow their data businesses, Zuckerberg said. “The overwhelming feedback we’re hearing from our partners is that it works. It grows the internet and grows their business," he said.

With its Internet.org initiative, deep-pocketed Facebook has purchased and bundled access to low-bandwidth sites such as Wikipedia, health-related services, and Facebook itself and provided it free of charge to users in developing countries. The purpose is partly philanthropic, but also promotional. As Zuckerberg observed at MWC, Internet.org has resulted in large upticks in the number of people using data in developing markets, as well as in the actual amounts of data consumed. The idea is that when those first-time data users begin to want internet-based services that are not covered by Internet.org, they will pay for more data, as well as for higher-end devices. The extent to which that will happen depends on how much disposable income those users have, so the long-term influence of Internet.org on operators’ revenues, beyond the subsidies Facebook pays them, remains to be seen.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about Tarifica or The Story of The Week: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx     and   Follow Tarifica on LinkedIn.

Airtel Ghana Deploys Dotgo’s SMS-Based Internet Service

Mobile messaging service provider Dotgo has announced that Ghanaian MNO Airtel Ghana has deployed its SMS-based internet service to its 4 million subscribers. The SMS Web Browser gives all mobile phone users access to the internet without cellular data or Wi-Fi. In order to use it, the subscriber sends an SMS to Dotgo containing the name of the website they wish to visit, and Dotgo then responds with an interactive menu-based version of the website condensed and formatted for SMS.

We have written extensively on the growing worldwide desire for data, and it is important to bear in mind that the hunger extends even to customers in developing economies who cannot yet afford data access. SMS-based workarounds like Airtel Ghana’s are valuable interim measures to satisfy this demand as much as they can under the circumstances and thereby to ensure that as many users as possible upgrade to smartphones and data plans as soon as possible.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about Tarifica or The Story of The Week: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx     and   Follow Tarifica on LinkedIn.

Notable Regional Developments In The Telecommunication Industry

Asia/Pacific

Singaporean mobile operator StarHub will launch the StarHub Silver app, aimed at the country’s senior citizens, on 15 September. The app, which is available for Android tablets at no cost, will allow senior users to access video content. According to the operator, it addresses the needs of its target audience by featuring a simple user interface, pictorial presentations, a soothing color scheme and large fonts to aid with reading and to enable easy navigation.

Europe

Slovenian mobile operator Si.mobile has introduced a package called Startup aimed at young entrepreneurs and startup businesses. The plan’s monthly cost is €19.99 (US $26.38) and it includes unlimited all-net calls and SMS, 2 GB of data for a mobile phone and 3 GB of data for a tablet or computer, as well as Microsoft Office 365 Small Business plus consultation. Small businesses can have up to five employees and are able to use the package for two years.

Latin America

Mexican operator Telmex has partnered with UN Habitat, a United Nations program that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable urban planning and design, to launch “+XMiCiudad” (more for my city). The app will aid citizens and authorities in creating urban development solutions related to water, waste, the environment, mobility, public space, safety, animals, buildings and noise.

Middle East/Africa

Tanzanian mobile operators Airtel and Tigo have introduced a money-transfer service, which will allow the operators’ mobile money customers to send and receive money between the two MNOs in Tanzania. This announcement follows last month’s agreement by the operators to adopt interoperability to help alleviate the challenges that were associated with financial transactions.

North America

U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless has partnered with JCDecaux, the leading global outdoor advertising company, to deploy digital mobile charging stations, a service that has been in demand, at the four largest international airports in the U.S.—John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, Miami and Los Angeles International Airports. The rollout includes 169 charging stations that will be equipped with USB ports, AC outlets and wireless recharge devices, as well as two 32-inch HD screens, on which Verizon will display commercial and content messages.

 The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

Many Consumers Unaware Of Throttling.

One Area Network Across East African Community

At a regional telecom meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda, various Ministers from four East African Community (EAC) countries—Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan—signed an agreement that will require operators in these countries to adopt and implement the framework for a One Area Network in the region by 31 December 2014. The launch of the One Area Network will abolish roaming charges among the four countries, and subscribers traveling there will be charged as local users on the visited country’s network. Additionally, calls that originate in any of the member countries will no longer be charged at international rates but at lower local rates. According to reports, Tanzania and Burundi did not participate in the meetings.

Before August 2012, when a US $0.22 per minute tax on all incoming calls was introduced by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority and a subsequent surge of similar taxes on international calls took place across the region, operators such as Safaricom in Kenya and MTN in Uganda and Rwanda had entered into mutual agreements that allowed their subscribers to make calls at no extra cost when traveling within the EAC. Vodacom Tanzania also had a comparable deal during that time. It mimicked the borderless network innovation that was spearheaded by Airtel’s predecessors Celtel and Zain in December 2006 across its operations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. However, once taxes were levied, the cost of calling across East Africa greatly increased, with operators raising their prices to pay for operating costs and realize profits.

With One Area Network, the current trend in the EAC is to reduce the high costs of making calls across borders, which according to subscribers is higher in some cases than the cost of calls to China, the U.S. or the U.K. While we have written several times about the abolition of roaming charges in the EU, it is likely that we will begin to see roaming charges reduced or eliminated in other regions such as the EAC and Russia and its Eastern European and Central Asian neighbors. We believe that this will have a positive impact not only on subscribers but on operators, as well, since the elimination of roaming rates will most likely result in increased phone use by customers while traveling.

  In the EAC, the regional economy is also likely to benefit, because lower calling rates will result in lower operating costs for businesses, and the end of roaming should help the mobile money industry, in particular. Mobile money is very much a way of life in the EAC, and it is a steady revenue stream for operators. One Area Network is just one of the initiatives to reduce roaming and international call charges that have emerged in the Middle East and Africa since 2013. Airtel and MTN both offer “roam like home” prices to their subscribers who are traveling in countries in which they operate, and we expect to see this trend expand even further.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx

Rival Operators to Access Safaricom’s M-Pesa Sales Network

In a surprising move, Kenyan MNO Safaricom announced its decision to open up the 85,000-strong agent network of its vastly successful M-Pesa mobile money service to rival operators. This implies that sales agents will now be able to offer Airtel Money and Orange Money services alongside M-Pesa services on the same premises, which will increase the commissions available to these agents. Safaricom has stated that it removed all exclusivity provisions in its M-Pesa agent contracts in February 2014.

M-Pesa’s success is largely acknowledged as underpinning Safaricom’s dominance in the Kenyan mobile market (its share is close to 73 percent). Since its launch in 2007, the mobile money platform has grown exponentially and now has 18.1 million customers. M-Pesa’s popularity is mainly due to the vast size of its agent network. Rivals Airtel and Orange not only have smaller networks, but the growth of their mobile money services has been limited by the exclusivity provisions that prohibited M-Pesa agents from marketing other services and the fact that M-Pesa transaction fees are double for unregistered users than for registered users.  Airtel, in fact, filed a petition with the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) in 2012 asking it to force Safaricom to open up its network, and a decision was due by June 30, 2014. However, there has been no announcement from the CAK.

Safaricom’s tight hold on the mobile money market is becoming a matter of concern for authorities in Kenya. It has been reported that M-Pesa transactions now account for 30 to 40 percent of the Kenyan GDP. Given this fact, and given that the trend in Africa is more towards inter-operable services, it is possible that Safaricom’s decision to make its network inter-operable may be an attempt to preempt the regulator. Interestingly, a recent study also found that due to rising competition in mobile money services, Kenyan mobile money agents were the least profitable among the eight countries studied in Africa and Asia despite generating the largest number of transactions in the region. The study found that only 58 percent of the agents are expected to be in operation in a year’s time. This may also be a factor in Safaricom’s decision, since opening up its network may be better in the long run than depleting its agent network strength. The operator will still be able to earn revenues from commissions on transactions by users on rival networks and be able to reach a wider market.

Furthermore, as reported in a previous issue of The Tarifica Alert, the strategy adopted by MVNO licensee Equity Bank may also undermine Safaricom’s M-Pesa based dominance in the market. While Safaricom has challenged Equity Bank’s strategy through a complaint to the regulator, it may have seen the writing on the wall. Therefore, it may focus more on strengthening and expanding its product portfolio. For example, it has partnered with Kenya Commercial Bank to offer the Biashara Small range of financial and communication products targeting small and medium-sized businesses—a segment that Equity Bank will also be targeting.

The above item appeared in a recent issue of The Tarifica Alert, a weekly resource that analyzes noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. To access all of the latest articles and issues:  http://www.tarifica.com/TarificaAlert.aspx