Moldcell Launches World Cup SMS Contest

Moldovan mobile operator Moldcell has launched an SMS contest called “I Love Football,” being held between 12 June and 13 July 2014 in connection with the FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil during that period. To enter, customers must send an SMS that includes certain words to a certain number; they will then be sent football-related questions that they can answer to accumulate points. Depending on the number of points, contestants can win a trip to Spain, two Sony C2305 and Sony C2005 smartphones or footballs. In addition, customers who send more than 30 messages to the contest number will receive 5 MB of data and five on-net SMS free of charge, available for 15 days for each sent SMS. Declining use of SMS is a global trend, and operators in many markets are looking for ways to promote the service. A timely contest such as this one, which takes advantage of a passionate interest common to many customers, is a good way to stimulate more frequent use of SMS, at least for the duration of the contest. Whether any new usage patterns will persist after the promotion ends is yet to be seen, of course, but considering the strength of the challenge to SMS from less-expensive OTT messaging services, we think this strategy is well worth trying out.  The above item appeared in a recent issue of Tarifica's "The Story of The Week", a weekly report that analyzes two noteworthy developments in the telecoms industry from around the world. For past issues or to learn more about The Story of The Week :  http://www.tarifica.com/storyoftheweek.aspx

Nawras Offers Free Data for World Cup

Omani MNO Nawras has introduced the Sahra Time World Cup Edition offer, which will be in effect until the end of the World Cup (13 July 2014). Under the offer, users who make OMR 0.30 (US $0.78) worth of national calls per day will receive 1 GB of free mobile data once a day for use between the hours of 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. Users can also browse the popular sports website Kooora.com free of charge all day long. A monthly fee of OMR 0.50 (US $1.29) applies to this offer, which is available to customers of the Mousbak prepaid service and Shababiah service (targeted at the under-25 age group).

During the 2010 World Cup, one study found an increase of 24 percent in worldwide data traffic, with an increase of 22 percent in streaming and an increase of 32 percent in YouTube usage on the mornings after matches. With increased global adoption of smartphones and tablets and the growing availability of 4G speeds, the 2014 World Cup is expected to bring about an even greater increase in traffic. Nawras’ generous free data offer is attempting to capitalize on the popularity of soccer in Oman and on the rising trend of data use among its population. In 2013, Oman was the fastest-growing smartphone market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, with 65 percent of users reported to have switched to smartphones. Active mobile broadband subscriptions were measured at 64.02 percent of the population as of April 2014. With 1 GB of data, users should be able to watch one video in standard definition for at least an hour.

However, the period of time (12 a.m. to 12 p.m.) in which the free data is available for use largely fails to coincide with the live broadcast timings for the tournament (8 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.). The availability of the additional data allowance may encourage users to utilize their plan allowances for watching the live broadcast. Also, it may enable users to watch match highlights and more importantly, it may accustom users to the advantages of a larger data allowance. This could serve to promote higher uptake of Nawras data plans in the future. Users of the Mousbak and Shababiah services can purchase 4G data plans ranging from 1 GB to 10 GB (the 3 GB to 10 GB plans are newly introduced). On the whole, we think offers like this World Cup package are a good way for operators to encourage data use, not just to earn revenues in the present but to form data-use habits with an eye on future revenues.

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