Pakistan - SMSs make electioneering more robust in country

Mobile phone operators in the country cashed the boom and enthusiasm of voters during elections 2013 campaign and generated revenues as SMS traffic went up to one billion text messages per day.

Thousands of candidates in the country made full use of the modern communication facilities and continuously tried to convince voters in their constituencies through text messages.

According to rough figures, one billion short messages (SMS) were exchanged on a daily basis in the country when the election was drawing nearer. 

“A huge rise in the usage of SMS was observed and not only the political parties used the SMS, but their supporters also exchanged a lot of SMS. Subscribers in Pakistan usually spend about a billion rupees a month on SMS,” said an official from a mobile service provider.

This increase in revenue is not only good for mobile companies but the medium used for campaigning is also very effective as there are 120 million mobile phone users in Pakistan.

Mobile phone companies also used Election 2013 as an opportunity and promoted different offers for their users. The subscribers were able to get all the information through text messages. 

Pakistan is one of the countries where per user SMS ratio is quite high. A general user generates 176 SMS per month in Pakistan. In China this number is 99 SMS per month, for India this figure is 53 per month, in USA this figure is 617 and in Brazil this figure is 22 SMS per month.

Source: By dailytimes.com.pk on 13th May 2013

Tanzania: Sh300 Million Daily SMS Craze

The short messaging service (SMS) craze has gripped mobile phone users in the country, whose nimble fingers are generating a whopping Sh300 million in revenue for the mobile phone companies every day.

With more people owning the increasingly affordable handsets, the traffic has surged to a record 5.1 million text messages daily, and this helped largely by the general belief among the subscribers that it's cheaper to text than to make a call.

Source: By allafrica.com on 19th June 2013

Pakistan cellcos bleed subs due to SIM rules

Pakistan's mobile operators have together lost around 2.7 million mobile subscribers in the first two month after the introduction of restrictions on the direct sale of SIMs through retail channels.

 

The latest statistics from telecom regulator PTA show that the nation's total mobile subscriber base fell to 120.8 million in January, from 123.6 million million in November.

 

Over the same period, cellular mobile teledensity dipped from 69.8% to 68%.

 

Each of Pakistan's five mobile operators were affected. Mobilink's mobile subscriber base was reduced from 36.6 million to 35.9 million over the two months. Telenor Pakistan's base fell to 30.2 million from 30.6 million, while Ufone's base declined from 24.3 million to 23.5 million.

 

In November, the Pakistani government announced new rules, introduced from December 1, prohibiting the direct sale of SIMs through retail channels. Operators were instead instructed to mail the SIMs to customers based on the address on their national identity card.

 

Operators were also ordered to block unverified SIMs and to limit the amount that can be registered to any one identity card to five.

 

Telecom operators have laid the bulk of the blame for the steep declines on the retail sales restrictions, the Express Tribune reported.

Source: By telecomasia.net (Dylan Bushell-Embling) on 27th March 2013

New fines to block spam messages in UAE

TRA working with etisalat and due to block messages coming from outside the country as well

In an effort to minimize unwanted messages on your mobile phone and other e-devices, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) has drawn up a fresh list of penalties.

According to a report in Emarat Al Youm, TRA will act upon complaints of consumers who receive marketing messages without their prior consent.

The TRA is also working with etisalat and du to activate monitoring devices to block all advertising messages coming from outside the UAE.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director-General, TRA, said a list of penalties have been finalised to minimise marketing messages send to mobile phones of residents.

Initially, the senders will be only warned. On repeated violation their service will be temporarily terminated and finally if caught again the senders will be fined and their service terminated permanently.

TRA has been receiving complaints from consumers about spam messages since long. Al Ghanim said, those who send marketing messages after the allotted time will be fined. Marketing messages are to be sent only between 7am and 9pm.

Residents can block messages sent from within the UAE by sending a text SMS to 7726.

He added that the TRA is currently working with etisalat and du to help block messages coming from outside the country as well.

Source: By emirates247.com on 25th March, 2013

Tanzania’s Healthy Pregnancy Text Message Service Reaches 100,000 Subscribers in 15 Weeks

SMS service is going into HEALTH CARE sector which bring more pregnancy awareness to the public in an easy way....

The unique healthy pregnancy text messaging (SMS) service reached 100,000 active registrants in March 2013. More than 4 million text messages have been sent to those who signed up for the free healthy pregnancy and safe motherhood information, since the launch late November 2012.

“Wazazi Nipendeni’ (Parents Love Me) is a national healthy pregnancy and safe motherhood multi-media campaign. The mHealth Tanzania Public Private Partnership strengthen this campaign by providing informative text messages and appointment reminders in Swahili at no charge for pregnant women and mothers of newborn babies up to 16 weeks of age. This service offers also free information to her supporters - such as husband, friends and family - and information seekers”, explains Sarah Emerson, Country Manager, mHealth Tanzania Partnership, CDC Foundation.

The Wazazi Nipendeni multi-media campaign includes promotion of the free text messaging service by listing the short-code on the campaign materials and instructs anyone interested in more information about healthy pregnancy to send the word ‘MTOTO’ (child) to the short-code 15001. Registrants receive instructional messages during registration, allowing them to indicate the woman’s current week or month of pregnancy (or the age of the newborn baby) during the enrollment process. “This process allows the recipients to receive specific text messages at the time the information is most relevant to them. The service registered an average of 7000 people per week. Healthcare partners such as the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation (EGPAF) and the Aga Khan Health Services - Joining Hands Initiative - play an important role by supporting the registration assistance of pregnant women at the healthcare facility level.

Eliza’s experience
“I found the text messages on my phone very useful during the period of my pregnancy”, says Eliza (29). This first-time mother was part of a group of women that gave feedback on the informative messages before the service started. She registered for the service as soon as it was launched in November 2012. “I was happy to receive the ‘Wazazi Nipendeni’ information about my pregnancy. I liked the helpful tips, including the importance of attending clinics regularly. I was able to learn about the need for testing and malaria prevention. I feel that it benefited me to know these things. I was able to go and deliver my baby safely since my baby was born healthy and without malaria. This service has also assisted my husband to better understand what I was going through during my pregnancy, so that he could be of greater assistance to me according to my needs.”

Eliza works as a housekeeper in Dar es Salaam and considers herself privileged when it comes to receiving information. She reads the newspapers and listens to radio. The housekeeper believes the service will especially be useful to women in remote areas as many have a mobile phone. “Many people, especially those living in rural areas, are not realizing how important it is to visit clinics”, she states. “They just don’t receive as much education and information as we do a big city. Newspapers are scarce there and not everyone has a radio. It also does not cost anything to get these text messages. So anyone can get the information from the Wazazi Nipendeni text messaging service. It will benefit many people, because it reaches all regions around the country.”

Government led initiative
Tanzania is a large country, it almost 900,000 square kilometers big. The country is approaching a population of 44 million. Current reports show that there are over 25 million mobile phone subscribers in our country. Tanzania registers the highest average number of text messages sent per month per subscriber in East Africa. The use of text messaging (SMS) doubled over the past few years to almost 5 billion messages in 2012. The mobile technology is therefore recognized by the ministry as a useful tool to offer crucial healthy pregnancy and safe motherhood information to even the most remote pregnant woman and her supporters.

Source: By Virtual Strategy Magazine on 28th March 2013

Africa, Asia lead 'mobile money' boom

Still thinking if you're ready to tap into the mobile world? Think no more now and go for it! You'd be amazed by the positive impacts of SMS marketing.

 

AFP - Africa and Asia are leading a global boom in the use of "mobile money" as millions turn to their mobile phones instead of coughing up cash or handing over credit cards.

In 2012, more than 30 million people were actively using mobiles to make payments, according to an industry study released Wednesday at the world's biggest mobile fair held from February 25-28 in Barcelona, Spain.

The study by the mobile operators' industry association, GSMA, found there were more mobile money accounts than traditional bank accounts in Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda.

In a single month, June 2012, more than 30 million people worldwide undertook 224.2 million transactions totalling $4.6 billion (3.5 billion euros), said the report, based on a worldwide survey.

The pace of activity exceeded the 196.3 million transactions performed by PayPal customers on average each month in the third quarter of 2012, it said.

Providers offered 150 mobile money services for people without banks, 41 of which were launched in 2012.

There were 56.9 million registered mobile money customers in sub-Saharan Africa, the study said. In June 2012, there were twice as many mobile money users as Facebook users in the region.

Mobile money's success is based on the fact that the number of mobile phone owners far exceeds the number of people with bank accounts. Sending money can be as simple as sending an SMS text message.

In Indonesia, mobile phone penetration is 106 percent, meaning there is more than one phone for each person in the population, while only 20 percent of the population holds a bank account.

According to Fundamo, an offshoot of global payments giant Visa, some 1.7 billion people worldwide have a mobile device but no bank account and are "economically active".

Originally dominated by banks, newcomers including mobile operators have been lured to the market, notably Safaricom's M-PESA service, which launched in Kenya in 2007 and now claims 15 million users.

The M-PESA service has a network of 50,000 agents including shopkeepers, allowing a city worker for example send to money home to a remote village or to put money aside in savings without opening a bank account.

In September 2012, 19.3 million people in Kenya were signed up to mobile money services, with nearly two billion euros deposited, according to the Kenyan telecommunications regulator CCK.

"The mobile money transfer service has become a key payments and transaction tool, mainly due to its easy use of applications, convenience and low cost value propositions," CCK said.

M-PESA, also present in Afghanistan, South Africa, India and Tanzania, now faces competition in Kenya from rivals including Orange Money provided by France Telecom offshoot Telkom Kenya, Paga, Airtel Money owned by Airtel Kenya and yuMobile offered by Essar Telekom.

Aletha Ling, chief operating officer at Fundamo, said the sector's future growth would depend on the players reaching a certain scale and on the various standards being able to work together.

With its "Visa Mobile Manage Service", Fundamo lets banks or telecommunication operators offer mobile money to customers without having to develop their own technology, she said.

"We think it's going to be an acceleration point," Ling said, noting that the company had recently signed deals with one bank in India and two others in Rwanda.

Are you tempted to try SMS service yourself? Contact us at sales@moceansms.com or +603 8996 4780.

Source: on 5 March 2013 

China’s SMS Volume Reaches 897.31 Billion, An Increase Of About Mere 2.1%

According to the recent statistics provided by the Ministry of Industry 2012, the mobile SMS Volume in the China has reached 897.31 billion, an increase of about 2.1% while the country’s mobile phone users increased by 11% last year calculating the country’s 2012 per capita sent down by about 9%, Sina Tech reports.

The statistics states that SMS amount reached last year 897.31 billion, but MMS volume reached 69.67 billion, an increase of 16.2% with the net increase of 64 million people in 2012 the number of mobile phone users reached 420 million, accounting for 74.5% of the total number of internet users, the rural netizens net increase of 20 million people, 156 million people.

Online shopping a net increase of 48 million users, with a total size of 242 million while the microblogging users a net increase of 059 million, with a total size of 309 million. The statistics further revealed that the non-voice revenue was 532.21 billion yuan, an increase of 16.9% while the voice business revenues of 544.09 billion yuan.

Source: By Karan Chopra on 28th January 2013

5 Reasons SMS Is Here to Stay

SMS remains the most popular two-way communications platform on the planet. In most cases, it's inexpensive, casual, and discreet for users. It also represents one of the more profitable features offered by mobile network operators. And while SMS does face an increasingly fractured market, largely from the growth of messaging apps, it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Here are five reasons why:

1. SMS IS GROWING, NOT SHRINKING

Indeed, SMS is continuing to grow at an incredible rate globally. In 2011, more than 7.8 trillion SMS were sent worldwide. That vastly outpaces every other messaging platform combined. Over-the-top (OTT) messaging (instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp, iMessenger, BlackBerry Messenger, etc., also known as application-to-person) represent 3.5 trillion messages, combined. Multimedia messaging service (MMS) adds another 200 billion. The rate at which SMS are sent is increasing, and is expected to increase each year at least through 2016, according to several research firms.

2. SMS IS A MAJOR REVENUE DRIVER FOR MOBILE NETWORK OPERATORS WORLDWIDE

SMS represents 63.5% of mobile messaging revenue globally. And it represents somewhere around 10% of an average operator's revenue streams. I have a hard time believing MNOs won't think of ways to add value to SMS, or reduce the cost enough that it still makes sense for consumers.

In fact, there are multiple examples of them taking this step. For instance, SMS sent via first delivery attempt mechanism can potentially save money on 80%-90% of text messages. Clever bundling can also drive revenue: Here in the United States, we bundle SMS with our calling plans, meaning there's no ceiling to how many messages a given subscriber sends in a month on his or her plan. What's the disincentive to use SMS?

3. SMS IS PLATFORM AGNOSTIC AND HIGHLY RELIABLE

I can (and do) use iMessage with friends who also have iPhones. But what about friends who have Android-based mobiles? Colleagues whose businesses use BlackBerry devices? My mother, who uses a feature phone? To reach them, SMS is the most reliable option. This is due to the simple reason that it's hard-coded into the global mobile infrastructure, requiring distribution across all phones and carriers.

What's more is that I find iMessage and other chat applications to be unreliable. SMS, on the other hand, works even in extremely resource-limited conditions, including lack of Internet access and even moments of cell tower traffic congestion. For example, in emergencies, texts have a higher chance of reaching people than other forms of communication. This level of low-resource ubiquity is unmatched in the global communications infrastructure.

4. INCREASING USE IN BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT AND NON-PROFIT SECTORS

SMS is seeing a dramatic increase as a tool for businesses, governments and non-profits to interact with large populations. For example, Detroit recently introduced a Text-My-Bus program that allows people using public transport to learn when the next bus is arriving at a given stop. Businesses are increasingly looking to SMS as an opportunity for advertising special prices or events to clients. UPS, for example, uses SMS to notify clients as to the progress of their package deliveries. And non-profits are increasingly participating in text-to-donate programs, where donors can send a brief message to a short phone number and a small donation is added to a cell phone bill. Most famously, the American Red Cross raised more than $43 million with its text-to-donate campaign following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

I suspect they choose SMS over a messaging service largely because user adoption rates are so high -- see my previous point about SMS being platform agnostic. With so many mobile phones in circulation, there's only one global messaging platform at the moment. For people wanting to reach a large audience via a convenient messaging feature, SMS is the only real option. As these services gain more traction, people will continue to interact with them via SMS.

5. CHAT IS ATTEMPTING TO EMULATE SMS SUCCESS

Many analysts see built-in messenger apps, such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Mxit and others as a threat to SMS. These apps operate on a user's data plan, rather than through the SMS protocol. The argument follows that in cases where data plans are cheaper than SMS plans, users will choose the least cost route, thus supplanting SMS as the most popular platform. To be fair, we've seen this happen in a few places. Hong Kong, Australia, and Finland have seen drops in SMS usage. In the U.S., SMS usage levelled off in 2011 for the first time. But a dip in usage does not translate to an evaporation of an entire platform. Indeed, SMS is still the most popular platform in the U.S., despite the relative ubiquity of iMessage, Blackberry Messenger, and Facebook chat.

Portio Research takes this argument a step further, suggesting that messaging apps may only be an addition to an increasingly fragmented market, rather than being an SMS killer:

Does a boost to one messaging type have to equate to a usage drop in another? Does it have to mean cannibalization of SMS? What about synergy? Side by side traffic growth? And what of the other messaging mediums of MMS, mobile e-mail, and mobile IM? After all, while messaging users love to communicate seamlessly, popular modes of communications do vary - and maybe OTT isn't a replacement, but rather just one more segment of the messaging mix.

In an increasingly device-rich society, with wild differences in access to infrastructure and technologies of all kinds between the very poor and even the moderately well-off, multi-channel communications are critical if service providers and businesses are to engage effectively with everyone in a community, all of the time. Each platform and channel of communication has trade-offs, and as we've argued elsewhere, your choice of platform not only presents opportunities -- to sharing video, or messaging more cheaply across cell data -- but can close doors to those without the kit or the credit to access them. Multi-channel approaches, such as the Praekelt Foundation's Young Africa Live, which combines SMS with feature- and smartphone apps and a website, offer the broadest possible number of options for individuals to engage with its message. Despite the brevity of the format, SMS has a valuable place in this spectrum, both as a lowest common-denominator technology, and as a communications platform that often works when all others fail.

In a multi-channel world, where successful engagement and data capture are increasingly critical, and as businesses focus more and more on reaching previously difficult markets in low- and middle-income countries, who can afford to discount the world's most accessible, most widespread, digital communications medium?

Source: By Trevor Knoblich on 14th January 2013. 

Do you feel tempted to try it out yourself? Contact us at sales@moceansms.com or +603 8996 4780