Easy Videos with Zain Carrier Billing and Starzplay

Middle East streaming video on demand (SVoD) service Starzplay has partnered with Kuwait-based multinational operator Zain Group to offer easier payment options for subscribers. Starzplay expects to accelerate customer acquisition through direct carrier billing integration with Zain in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. The move marks Starzplay’s first integration in Iraq, providing seamless access to its video content for Zain’s 15.7 million customers across the country. 

Prepaid as well as postpaid users can watch Starzplay’s content straight from their phone, or else at home via smart TV devices or games consoles.

Carrier billing for apps or entertainment content has proved popular in many markets. With most of those that we have written about, ease and convenience have been the major factors in their uptake among consumers. A one-click approach to making such purchases, along with the comfort factor of conducting business through one’s operator, with which one has built-in trust, has tended to drive the increase in purchasing that gratify operators and participating partners alike. In this case with Zain and Starzplay, however, there is another factor at work, in addition to the above mentioned.

In the Middle East and North African markets (MENA), many subscribers to mobile services do not have credit cards, and a smaller though significant number do not even have bank accounts. This is especially true of younger people—an age group with a strong interest in SVoD products. Among these users, though, there is a high penetration of smartphones. Therefore, a company such as Starzplay can maximize its success with this target demographic by approaching them through their mobile service providers and making it possible for them to purchase the video service via their mobile accounts, without need for credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts.

Young users have been shown not only to be major consumers of video entertainment content, but also to have a particular preference for viewing it on an on-demand basis. The element of choice—not only in entertainment content but in mobile plan features and a plethora of other market phenomena—is especially characteristic of this demographic. Therefore, it is an excellent idea for MNOs and their enterprise partners to recognize this fact and tailor as many offerings to it as possible. For Zain and Starzplay to make the carrier billing option available to prepaid as well as postpaid users is in line with this strategy, as prepaid plans tend to predominate among younger users, for reasons of budget and freedom alike.

We expect that this offering will benefit Starzplay in terms of increased subscriptions, Zain in terms of revenues from fees and in terms of increased customer loyalty and of course the subscribers in terms of satisfaction with both the product and their MNO.

Tarifica is a global SaaS company and a market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants. 

Learn more about Tarifica at www.tarifica.com.

Zain Kuwait Partners with Restaurant App

Operator Zain Kuwait has announced an agreement with Bildarb, a mobile app for making restaurant table reservations and for placing orders with restaurants. Zain will offer customers who use the app exclusive discounts of up to 35 percent. Bildarb offers table bookings, immediate seating, advance ordering and payment before arrival. It also offers the ability to split a bill among diners, locations and directions to restaurants without the need for other apps and a function for inviting family and friends to meals.

Through its partnership with Bildarb, Zain offers its customers and staff the following discounts at specific restaurants in Kuwait: 35 percent from Bruce and Clark, 20 percent from Freshii, 5 percent from Prime and Toast, 5 percent from Wasabi, 5 percent from Pizzetta, 10 percent from Bonchon Chicken, 10 percent from The Kitchen, 10 percent from Chubby Balls, 10 percent from Humble Burgers, 10 percent from Proper Sliders, and 10 percent from Junkyard.

Partnerships with smartphone apps, as we have written on a number of occasions, can be a fruitful way for operators to offer diversified services to their subscribers and also to include special, proprietary benefits along with them.

While there are many eating-oriented apps on the market, Bildarb appears to be especially well designed from the point of view of offering value-added services that are of genuine utility and are therefore appropriate for an MNO that seeks to increase its power to attract and retain customers.

Bildarb will likely be particularly useful for Zain’s business customers, given that their reliance on restaurants as venues for meetings and dealmaking. Conversely, it will of course benefit the restaurant business in Kuwait, since it helps restaurateurs expand their customer bases, boost productivity, improve customer service and develop new services. In terms of e-commerce, it also allows them to accept online payments and access statistical reviews through an administration portal. There is potential for Zain to gain new business customers from the ranks of those participating restaurant businesses.

It should be borne in mind that while access to Bildarb is not exclusive to Zain subscribers, the substantial discounts offered to them through the app create an exclusive aspect for the relationship and thereby strengthens the brands of both entities. A considering that food is an important connector between people in virtually all areas of life, a restaurant-based co-branding.

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 

Zain Kuwait Launches Drone Services

Kuwait-based multinational Zain Group has announced the launch of the Zain Drone service in Kuwait, with the plan to expand to other Zain markets in future. The company said that Zain Drone as-a-Service (DaaS) will offer bespoke services and advanced analytics for governments and businesses.
 
Zain Drone will serve industries such as oil and gas (for flare inspections), utilities (power line inspections), construction (building information modeling), infrastructure (asset inspections), security, real estate, agriculture and border security, among others. The system will facilitate the gathering of image data by measuring parameters, assessing image data and performing automated stock-taking.
 
Sensors providing visual and thermal video footage for traffic and event identification can also be implemented. Zain Drone has application in mass-control environments and emergency situations, as well as in media services with respect to live and high-resolution streaming. Zain Drone will also offer Artificial Intelligence-enabled autonomous systems. AI drones are capable of self-diagnostics, self-charging and autonomous navigation using sensors and accurate data.
 
Another application powered by Zain Drone will be a suite of Anti-Drone solutions to assist governments and security forces to identify and passively monitor unauthorized drones that threaten safety, security and privacy. This is achieved by using proprietary multi-sensor detection technologies, an enterprise-grade network, instant alerts and the collection of digital evidence. 
 
We have written on a number of occasions recently about the rise of IoT applications and their utility to mobile operators. This drone service provided by Zain is, we think, a particularly interesting and innovative application of IoT for business and government use. We are used to hearing about drones as high-tech playthings that often cause inconveniences or unsafe situations, but that should not blind us to the fact that drone technology has wide application and many positive uses that have nothing to do with consumer recreation.
 
By offering a broad range of bespoke drone services, Zain is creating a potential revenue stream for itself and is distinguishing itself by creating the services rather than simply providing connectivity for a third party’s products. This will deepen its relationships with enterprise clients while also strengthening its brand and enhancing its reputation for innovation, for providing value-added services and for anticipating needs. And of course, by providing the technology, Zain is also ensuring that the connectivity to run all these devices will go over its own network rather than those of competitors.
 

The Anti-Drone solution is a noteworthy aspect of the offering, in that it directly and proactively addresses the problems with drones to date, thereby improving customer perceptions of drone technology.

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 

STC Offers The Highest Value Plans in Saudi Arabia While Mobily and Zain Tie for Second Place

Tarifica has announced the latest Tarifica Scores for postpaid mobile plans in Saudi Arabia.

The Tarifica Score™ is a proprietary algorithm used to evaluate mobile plans based on the value they offer consumers. It incorporates every aspect of each mobile plan (including usage allotments, geographic coverage, data speeds, value added features and promotional elements) and weighs them against each plan’s total costs to determine its consumer value. Scores range from 0 to 100.

“STC’s Postpaid 400 plans have the highest overall score in both the ‘without phone’ and ‘with phone’ categories,” said Jamie Davella, Tarifica’s Saudi Arabia Analyst. “In the without phone category, STC won because of its faster download speeds, while its with phone plans came out on top in that category because of their lower device charges. Interestingly, Mobily’s best overall plans (Wajid Extra) have more voice and text allowances than STC’s top plan and somewhat lower monthly fees but these attributes do not outweigh Mobily’s slower network speed and higher phone costs,” she continued.

Mobily and Zain are virtually tied for second place in the overall best plans category, scoring 94 and 93, respectively, among plans without phones, and 83 and 82, respectively, among those that include one.

Each operator wins its share of top honors for plans segmented by monthly charge. In fact, Mobily has the best plans in four of these subcategories while Zain wins in three and STC in two, indicating that the market is very competitive. Zain also wins the competition for offering the highest data allotment with its 1 Terabyte Package XTRA plans. Since the Tarifica Score uniformly cuts off all data allotments greater than 10 gigabytes in order to conform to most common usage patterns, plans with this extremely high volume of data did not win in either the overall or price-specific categories.

“In today’s mobile marketplace, consumers are flooded with hundreds of plan variations and constantly shifting promotions and deals—the majority of which come with different costs and services and access networks of differing strengths. When making a decision that will likely impact them for up to two years, consumers can use Tarifica Scores to cut through the clutter and identify those plans in every market segment that offer the best value for the money,” stated Tarifica Program Manager, Will Watts.

Ken Dolsky, Senior Program Director at Tarifica also commented on the market intelligence value to operators. “We see great interest in the Tarifica Score among mobile operators. Users gain access to our proprietary model which enables operators to design plans that score high in consumer-friendliness and value. They are also able to quickly see, in quantitative terms, the impact that competitive changes have on the market. In the case of Saudi Arabia, STC’s best plan scored six points better than Mobily’s best plan among those without phones but when its lower priced phone advantage was included it increased the gap between them to 17 points among plans that came with a device.”

To Contact Us: http://www.tarifica.com/contactus.aspx

Zain Jordan Launches New Roaming Bundles

Jordanian mobile operator Zain has launched roaming bundles for its postpaid and prepaid clients. The international roaming packages include three options for receiving calls while roaming in over 180 countries. The first plan costs JOD 10.00 (US $14.05) per month, with the voice call receiving charge priced at JOD 0.09 (US $0.12); the second bundle is priced at JOD 20.00 (US $28.10) per month and includes 400 receiving minutes;  the third plan includes 1,000 receiving minutes per month and costs JOD 35.00 (US $49.19). Prepaid customers can opt for a plan that costs JOD 3.00 (US $4.21) and charges JOD 0.15 (US $0.21) per minute for receiving a voice call while roaming in more than 180 countries.

There are three mobile service providers in Jordan,  Zain, Orange and Umniah, which are constantly trying to increase their market share. Zain’s new roaming offers seem like a good way of bringing some additional revenue in, especially since currently none of the other operators on the market offer similar roaming packages. The roaming rates in Zain’s packages also seem slightly lower than the rates offered by the competition. Orange Jordan charges its postpaid clients JOD 0.10 (US $0.14). Prepaid subscribers pay JOD 0.05 (US $0.07) per minute for receiving a call while roaming in Arab countries and JOD 1.00 (US $1.40) per minute for a received call in any other country. Umniah Jordan charges its postpaid users JOD 0.10 per minute for receiving a call while roaming around the world. Additionally, subscribers who use Uline60 and Uline160 packages receive calls while roaming around the world at no additional cost.

The new packages introduced by Zain seem to have attractive prices. Additionally, they provide some flexibility, which allows the customers to select a plan that best fits their needs. As we have written previously, customers, especially cost-conscious ones, like to fully control their spending, so offers that allow some form of flexibility are becoming more and more popular among them.

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

Notable Global Telecommunication Developments

Asia/Pacific

Indian mobile operator Tata DoCoMo has launched SimplySwap, a handset protection service for its postpaid customers. New and existing subscribers who purchase a handset from the operator can enroll in the program, which will allow them to swap their devices for the same brand and model twice each year. All swapped handsets include a new six-month warranty. The SimplySwap service charge includes a monthly fee, which is included in customers’ bills as a well as a fee when the device exchange is completed. These charges depend on the type of device and start at INR 89.00 (US $1.46) for the monthly service fee and INR 400.00 (US $6.57) for the corresponding swap fee.

Europe

U.K. mobile operator Vodafone will launch a mobile wallet service next month. In a partnership with Visa, the MNO has developed services that will work with a SIM card that is embedded with NFC technology, which will enable mobile devices to be used for contactless payments. The Vodafone wallet, which will be available for Android phones, will allow users to pay for travel on the London Underground and to make person-to-person payments.

Latin America

Three of the four major operators in Brazil have requested a stop or changes to the upcoming 30 September auction for 4G services of the 700 MHz band. Operators Vivo, Claro and TIM Brasil have all said that they disagree with certain parts of the 700 Mhz auction rules and want them changed. The carriers are complaining that although the rules set a minimum on how much the operators would need to pay TV companies for the cleanup of

spectrum, they do not set a cap on those payments. The operators also oppose the extra payment that is being imposed on telecom service providers that currently own 4G licenses—basically the major MNOs. The regulator, Anatel, has indicated that the auction will not be postponed; however, it will judge all appeals against various aspects of the 700 MHz band auction at a meeting on 18 September.

Middle East/Africa

South Sudan’s largest mobile operator, Zain, has partnered with Huawei, a global technology solutions provider, and the United Nation’s peace and security promoting organization, UNESCO, to provide internet access to schools in the country. Zain’s base stations will be used to power the project, and the first phase of this initiative will bring internet access to more than 3,000 school children.

North America

Verizon Enterprise Solutions, the business and government solution provider of U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless, has announced that Verizon Auto Share, a secure platform that will enable drivers to rent, drive and return cars and other vehicles, will be available before the end of 2014. The Scan & Go feature of the service’s app, which is available for smartphones and tablets, will provide drivers with access to their chosen vehicle and with the ability to start and drive it through a key fob that appears on the app. The app targets customers of rental car companies and auto dealers.

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

Zain Offers 1 TB Data Sharing Plan

Saudi MNO Zain has launched its latest postpaid plan, called Xtra. It offers a monthly allowance of 1 TB of data along with a free Mi-Fi device and three free data SIMs, thereby allowing users to share the data allowance between a maximum of four devices at the same time. The plan also provides a monthly allowance of 2,400 all-net minutes, 300 international minutes, unlimited all-net SMS and 512 MB of roaming data. The monthly subscription fee for the plan is SAR 1,000.00 (US $261.77). Subscribers can also select a “diamond vanity number” (a phone number whose corresponding keypad letters spell out a word or name), said by the operator to be worth more than SAR 100,000.00 (US $26,177.50), free with the plan.

Saudi Arabia is ranked among the top countries in the world in terms of smartphone penetration, with a rate in excess of 70 percent. Combine the increasing adoption of smartphones with the demographics of the country (70 percent of the population is under 30), and it is not surprising that mobile data use is rising rapidly. One study found that the Twitter penetration among internet users in Saudi Arabia is the highest in the world (150 million tweets sent per month in 2013), and 73 percent of Saudi Twitter users access their accounts through mobile phones. The same study also reported that Saudis watched 90 million YouTube videos per day in 2013, an average of 7 per user per day. Zain itself reported that in 2013 its 4G network saw a 600 percent increase in data traffic and a 1,400 percent increase in active user rates compared to the same period in 2012.

The three Saudi operators have been offering 4G since 2011, Zain having been the first to launch commercial services. The operators have been structuring plans to derive more revenue from data use by targeting specific customer segments and needs. While this latest plan, Xtra, may not see mass adoption due to its price point, it may appeal to a small segment of high-end heavy users, to whom it does offer value. Zain’s next-tier plan offers 10 GB of data, 1,200 minutes and unlimited SMS for a monthly fee of SAR 400.00 (US $106.61), while rival Mobily offers a postpaid data-sharing plan with unlimited data (throttled at 10 GB per month), 3,000 on-net minutes and SMS and 1000 all-net minutes and SMS for SAR 399.00 (US $106.35). If Zain’s new plan is successful, it will be able to attract a limited yet potentially profitable pool of high-quality customers. Since it is unlikely that anybody will use 256 GB on each of four devices in a month, this large data allowance as well as the inclusion of the diamond vanity number are probably symbolic in nature, and confer a premier status on those who subscribe to this plan.

 

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

Mobile Money Poised to Reach Critical Mass

 Three recent developments signal that mobile money may be on the verge of crossing the size-and-scale threshold where it can provide both increased convenience and security from theft to the unbanked around the world and distinct and significant revenue streams for operators.

First, Bharti Airtel and MTN announced a deal allowing convenient and affordable money transfer between their customers in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. This is the first cross-border mobile-to-mobile remittance service in West Africa. MTN spokesman Pieter Verkade stated, “MTN has reached a great level of adoption of Mobile Money in Ivory Coast, and Airtel has done the same in Burkina Faso. With a sizable community of Bukinable  working in Ivory Coast and sending money back to their home country, the partnership will greatly enhance the Mobile Money service for both countries.” Global remittance payments—an area where mobile money has yet to take off—are estimated at US $534 billion per year; if mobile operators can tap into even a moderate proportion of that, it could prove a significant new source of revenue.

Second, French multinational operator Orange announced that its mobile money network had received its 10 millionth customer. Orange rolled out its mobile money service in 2008, and since then it has become available in 13 African and Middle Eastern countries. In 2013, over US $3 billion passed through the service. While it is not the largest mobile money network (MTN has 14.8 million users in 14 countries), this news demonstrates that mobile money is a focus point for large global operators, which have the ability to make it a truly functional payment form, in the way that users of VISA, MasterCard, or American Express have come to expect.

Third, Qatari operator Ooredoo announced that it joined the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association’s (GSMA) Mobile Money Interoperability program. This program focuses on helping operators launch and scale interoperable mobile money services through the sharing of best practices and provides regulatory support. Its members represent 582 million mobile connections across 48 Middle Eastern and African countries and include Bharti Airtel, Etisalat, Millicom, MTN, Orange, STC, Vodafone and Zain.

While none of these items by itself represents a major leap forward for mobile money, collectively they are signs that the platform is picking up the backers and scale needed to reach launch velocity in emerging markets—that is, the point at which it becomes so widespread that the conveniences of having and using mobile money outweigh any difficulties associated with it. There are still many challenges to the adoption and success of mobile money, but it appears to have momentum on its side.

 

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