Philippines - Smart Money brings cashless parking system

e-Park via SMS: what an advanced mobile solution technology

Smart and parking operator Wi-Tech Solutions & Development have launched an e-Park initiative and is a project of Smart Money. Users of Smart Money, the electronic wallet service, can conveniently pay parking fees through SMS when they park their vehicle along the Roxas Boulevard service road in Manila, site of the first cashless and automated street parking system in the Philippines. After parking on any of the 90 slots between Pedro Gil Street and the Magsaysay Center on Roxas Boulevard, vehicle owners with a Smart Money account need only text a code to have the parking fee automatically deducted from their mobile wallet. The parking rate is PHP 10 per hour. Vehicle owners can occupy a slot for a minimum of two hours. Thirty minutes before they reach the time limit, Smart Money users will receive an SMS reminding them to either vacate the slot or send additional load using the same code to extend their use of the parking space.

Vehicle owners who have no Smart Money account yet can pay in cash to e-loaders in the area who, for a minimal fee of PHP 3-5, will then use their Smart Money account to remit the payment to the e-Park system. Those who wish to get a Smart Money account may visit smart.com.ph.

Source: By telecompaper on 8th October 2012.

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Australia: Acceptance of Mobile Advertising Jumps

Have you incorporated SMS marketing into your marketing activities? Have not? Uh be fast to adopt this new and highly accepted method before left behind. Not convinced? Let's see below! :)

Australians are becoming more and more accepting of mobile advertising with new figures showing a boom in the proportion of mobile users 'opting in' to receive corporate SMS and MMS messages.

Almost 60% of consumers surveyed in the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association's (AIMIA's) 2012 'Annual mobile phone lifestyle index' (AMPLI) said they had opted in to receive direct mobile ads from businesses, up 10% on last year.

The research also revealed that once consumers received advertising messages, they were more likely to engage with them than not, with 54% or respondents saying they would engage with direct messages.

The news comes as the Australian government considers amping up privacy laws which would curb the ways mobile marketers are allowed to communicate with consumers. 

Unsurprisingly, the percentage of smartphone owners has also jumped year-on-year, with 76% of all respondents owning a smartphone, up from 67% in 2011.

Based on the survey results, AIMIA predicts that 80% of respondents will own a smartphone by the end of 2012 and 84% will own a smartphone by mid-2013.

Tablet ownership has more than doubled year-on-year, with 38% of respondents saying they owned a tablet device, up from last year’s figure of 16%.

An additional 33% of survey respondents said they were planning to purchase a tablet within the next 12 months. Based on these results the forecast for tablet ownership is 50% by December 2012 and 71% by mid-2013

When it came to the use of mobile apps, 69% of people reported having downloaded and installed an app on their mobile phone, up from 55% in 2011.

The most popular type of apps were those for navigation and games, followed closely by news and weather and social networking.

Almost 60% stated they had paid to download an app, flat on last year.

But while uptake of mobile technology booms, it seems customer satisfaction with mobile carriers is low. Last year’s AMPLI survey saw satisfaction levels for almost every service type decrease considerably when compared to previous years and the 2012 results have persisted, with minimal evidence of recovery. 

However this year’s results show substantial variation in satisfaction across the carriers when it came to specific services.

Satisfaction with Virgin was considerably higher for almost all services when compared to other carriers, except for network coverage

Vodafone experienced substantially lower levels of satisfaction compared to the other carriers for overall satisfaction, customer service, network coverage and content and services available via the carrier’s portal. AIMIA said these results were most likely an outcome of the network issues the carrier has experienced over the last year

Satisfaction with Telstra’s network coverage was a standout for the carrier when compared other providers

The AMPLI report is a collaborative industry research project carried out by the Mobile Industry Group (MIG) - a special interest group of AIMIA.

Source: By Madeleine Ross on 27th September 2012.

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Tanzania: Mobile Phone Users Opt for Messages

THE number of on net traffic mobile phone calls declined by 2.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2012 compared to quarter ending December 2011, with many people opting for short messages (SMS) that more than doubled.

Official data released last week by Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) shows that the number of on net calls declined to 4.63 billion in the quarter under review from 4.76 billion of the preceding period, a sign that many mobile users have opted to messages.

"The number of short messages sent through mobile phones more than doubled to 1.23 billion in the quarter ending March 2012 compared to only 598.74 million recorded in the period between October and December, last year," stated the report.

Total revenues garnered from the number of messages which exchanged hands among various mobile users jumped to 72.64bn/- in the period ending March compared to only 20.95bn/- accrued between October and December, 2011.

In the meantime the number of calls from one network to another declined by 3.31 per cent to 232.12 million
in the quarter under review compared to 240.07 million of the previous period.

But the number of mobile sms from one network system to another increased by 16.27 per cent to 324.80 million in March, this year compared to only 279.34 million messages. Tanzania lead in the East African region in terms of average number of text messages sent per month per subscriber.

Moving the 2012/13 budget estimates in Dodoma in June, this year, the Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Dr William Mgimwa said the government has increased taxes on mobile phone calls by two per cent to 12 per cent, which will definitely impact on the rate of both on and off net calls.

The quarterly operator's subscriptions market shares show that Vodacom still leads with 45 per cent, Airtel 27 per cent, Tigo 21 per cent and Zantel six per cent.

Source by: Sebastian Mrindoko on 22 August 2012