MTS Belarus Upgrades Mobile Money System

Mobile operator MTS Belarus has upgraded its payment system, MTS Money, with additional functions. The service now enables customers to receive SMS or push-messages about road-traffic fines, and the system will allows them to pay the fine in a single click. There is no limit to the number of cars can be attached to an account.

The new automatic payment option also enables customers to set a schedule and amount for certain payments to be made from the account, by default. Payments using QR codes have also become available through the system, as well as the ability to track income and expenses for a selected period chosen.

The updated MTS Money app is already available for iOS devices, and a version for Android is expected to be launched soon.

Mobile money under the aegis of mobile operators has experienced great success in many economies, originally developing ones with unbanked populations but increasingly in relatively developed ones, too. In such markets, where access to bank accounts and more traditional methods of payment is no uncommon, mobile money’s chief calling card is convenience.

From the mobile-operator point of view, one of the major elements of convenience they can offer is the ability to pay bills for the operator’ services through the proprietary app. And of course, there is simplicity of consolidating multiple payment in payment—the phone bill. Now, MTS Belarus is offering customers the ability to pay not just for ordinary purchases but for recurring bills, by setting prepay options in the app. Furthermore, the convenience of paying traffic tickets through the app is a value-added service that the operator has designed with forethought for crafting distinctive features with real-world appeal.

In short, by tailoring a mobile money application in order to specific uses that customers want, an operator such as MTS can make the system much more appealing and versatile than it was previously, and thereby increase subscription. By increasing subscription and usage volume, the operator will accrue more revenue from transaction fees and possibly even drive customer acquisition and retention.  

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.  If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact our Editor-in-chief John Dorfman at jdorfman@tarifica.com

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Orange Spain to Launch 400 Mbps LTE-A in 10 Cities This Year

Orange Spain has announced that it will be launching LTE-A technology, capable of delivering sustained speeds of 300 Mbps and peak speeds of 400 Mbps, in 10 Spanish cities by the end of 2015. When it showcased the technology at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona earlier this month, Orange claimed it reached the highest speeds yet seen in Spain by aggregating the 2,600 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 800 MHz frequencies (the 800 MHz frequency is due to be released next month). The LTE-A service will be expanded from Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia to seven other large cities—Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Murcia, Las Palmas and Bilbao—by the end of the year. Orange currently has approximately 2.3 million 4G customers, and the company confirmed that it remains on course to bring 4G services to 85 percent of the Spanish population by the end of year, including all localities with over 10,000 inhabitants.

We are a little skeptical about the utility of LTE-A, at least for consumers. Speeds in the hundreds of megabytes per second are not necessary for even the most data-intensive activities such as downloading movies. According to network testing firm OpenSignal, Spain already has the fastest mobile network speeds in the world, averaging 18 Mbps. Of the country’s operators, Vodafone came out the fastest of the eligible networks tested, with average speeds of 25.2 Mbps. Now, we understand that Orange may want to catch up, but speeds of 300 to 400 Mbps would appear to be a case of, to say the least, massive retaliation. Spain is experiencing rather severe economic problems right now, and that, combined with the fact that it is already the world leader in network speed, indicates that an LTE-A rollout in the country is not a good use of resources on the part of a mobile operator.

The above item appeared in 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

Vodafone Romania CEO Calls for Level Playing Field

The CEO of Vodafone Romania, Ravinder Takkar, told a local newspaper that Romania has too many operators and that the current configuration—many market players with high-quality networks and prices that are purportedly the lowest in Europe—is not sustainable in the long term and possibly not even in the medium term. Takkar said he believes that the telecommunications authority should take steps to bring about the strengthening and “recovery” of the industry. Among these would be the “equalization” of rules between mobile operators and fixed line operators and a reduction in the tax burden to encourage investment. Takkar added that in the Romanian telecom market, earnings are too low in relation to investment.

Vodafone is the second-largest operator in Romania, after Orange. It is possible that its CEO believes that if the number of players in the country’s market were to go down, Vodafone would be better able to pick up the new subscribers than its rival, Orange would. Alternately, Takkar’s remarks may truly reflect an altruistic attitude toward the Romanian telecom market as a whole. If may well be the case that if tax laws are changed to encourage investment and regulatory rules are changed so as to create fairer competitive conditions, the market will shake itself out, shedding dead weight and allowing the remaining entities to be healthier and accrue more profits. Whether or not regulators will heed Takkar’s call, of course, remains to be seen.

 

“In the hypercompetitive telecom market, sometimes cooperation makes more sense than competition—or rather cooperation can actually strengthen competition. Whether it is two rival operators, such as Beeline and MTS, working together to build an LTE network that will benefit both, or urging the elimination of unfair regulatory advantages, as in Romania, operators may come to realize that a rising tide can indeed lift all boats.”

Will Watts, Program Manager at Tarifica.

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