Mobile Point View by Paul Ruppert

Mobile Humour for the Holidays

A) A home office consultant asks a network repairman visiting his house to address a connection issue:

"If I have no wireless, does that make me a WiNo?" 

B) Several men are in the locker room of a private club after exercising. Suddenly a cell phone on one of the benches rings. A man picks it up and the following conversation ensues:

"Hello?"  "Honey, It's me." "Sugar!"  "Are you at the club?" "Yes."

"Great! I'm at the mall 2 blocks from where you are. I saw a beautiful mink coat. It is absolutely gorgeous! Can I buy it?"

"What's the price?" "Only $1,500." "Well, okay, go ahead and get it, if you like it that much."

"Ahhh, and I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new models. I saw one I really liked. I spoke with the salesman and he gave me a really good price ... and since we need to exchange the BMW that we bought last year..." "What price did he quote you?" "Only $60,000!" "Okay, but for that price I want it with all the options." "Great! Before we hang up, something else..."

"What?" "It might seem like a lot, but I was reconciling your bank account and...well, I stopped by to see the real estate agent this morning and I saw the house we had looked at last year. It's on sale! Remember? The one with a pool, English garden, acre of park area, beachfront property..."

"How much are they asking?" "Only $450,000... a magnificent price, and I see that we have that much in the bank to cover..." "Well, then go ahead and buy it, but just bid $420,000, OK?" "Okay, sweetie. Thanks! I'll see you later!! I love you!!!" "Bye."

The man hangs up, closes the phone's flap and asks aloud, "Does anyone know to whom this phone belongs?"

Happy Holidays from Mobile Point View.

Mobile Payments: Top 10 Issues between Banks and Mobile Operators

Central Issues in Mobile Banking Market

1. Banks. They think like bankers; they move slowly and are strong on committees, processes and regulation, all of which should be seen as strengths in risk management strategies; however mobile operators can help bring innovation to these same banks as they seek to move into the mobile payments space.
2. Banks are looking for multi-channel services, i.e. mobile is only seen as an extension of their existing services; whereas mobile operators can help bring new financial services to new banking segments (see below).
3. From a bank’s perspective, mobile can help exponentially drive transaction volume. This volume is predominantly SMS-based; often revenue-generating for the mobile operator, and mainly balance enquiries from the bank’s perspective. That's all. From a mobile operator perspective, this SMS volume doesn't even move the needle regarding incremental SMS volume or revenue opportunity.
4. Banks bring trust to the consumer, whereas mobiles bring ubiquity and personal proximity with the mobile phone being touted as a personal key entry device necessary for some bank authentication and card issuing rules.
5. Ambitious mobile network operators have an opportunity to experiment with new models and to work with regulators to help implement these by shaping the regulatory environment. The question is will they, and when?
6. Mobile banking is not the definitive answer to the un-banked such as in the merging markets, but mobile does offer lessons in terms of distribution footprint to reach non-serviced areas.
7. Convenience of payment can help drive take-up of payment services regardless of the frequency of usage or number of clicks required to access/pay for service.
8. Mobile banking is very effective for electronic money, but market realities dictate the need for a cash in/cash out agent outlet either using cash to access formal bank channels or to develop new encashment agents underlining the fact that cash is still an efficient payment tool.
9. Relevant services need to be offered to the consumer. Bill payment, airtime/messaging topup and money transfer all feature highly as requested services, as well as standard balance enquiries. But what else is there, consider transaction expansion.
10. There is no one wining business model in the world of mobile banking, but those currently highlighted indicate a collaborative model between an existing bank (bringing existing consumer trust in the brand) and mobile operator, possibly under a new brand name.
11. Mobile operators need the bank as it brings trust, compliance and interoperability into the rest of the banking infrastructure.

Neither banks, nor operators will be able to do this independently. They need each other and are like mating porcupines, or crashing tectonic plates in approaching this market opportunity. Don't get caught in between.

OK. Now its your turn. What do you think of the prospects of Mobile Transaction? How will the market settle for a solution? Comments are very welcome (please!) with the objective of building a community who engages in a conversation. And if you liked the post, please dig, delicous, or stumble to spread the word! Thanks for your readership.

Tip of the hat to Michele Scanlon of Green Giraffe

$1.1 Billion passed via Chinese Mobile Payments

China Unionpay's 8 million Users E3Q

At least 8 million consumers had used China Unionpay’s mobile-phone payment as of the end of October, up 21% from 6.6 million as of June, the Shanghai-based national payment card network says.

Consumers initiated nearly 50 million transactions through October totaling 8 billion yuan [US$1.1 billion or 731 million euro]. That compares with 24.5 million transactions they initiated during the first half of the year that totaled 3.9 billion yuan, UnionPay says. "The mobile-payment service was first launched last year as a pilot program, with a current coverage of 21 provinces and cities nationwide," a UnionPay spokesperson tells CardLine Global.

China UnionPay operates the mobile-payment service with banks and mobile operators such as China Mobile and China Unicom. After tying their UnionPay card accounts with mobile-phone numbers, customers can send text messages to make phone, utility, credit card, air ticket and insurance payments.

Carnival of the Mobilists #102

CoM #102 is hosted this week at Tarek Ghazali's blog, Symbiano-TeK.  For an 18 year old--he's a university student in Cairo--Tarek has a great command of the mobile segment (and an obvious fascination with Symbian), so explore Symbiano-TeK while checking out CoM this week.

Of this week's contributions, I enjoyed most Ajit Jaokar's "P2P May be Google's biggest Weakness and an Operator's biggest Asset" on his blog, Open Gardens. Great discussion of open mobility.  Oh, I've contributed a post there as well. Check it out. What do you think?

IRAQNA Aquired by Zain

As I predicted in my post of August 31, 2007, "Hunting Iraqi Operators", IRAQNA the  Orascom Iraq-based mobile operator has been acquired by ZAIN for US$ 1.2 bn. ZAIN is formerly known as MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Company).   

I've covered Iraqna's service build ( see "Untold Text Stories" ) often since writing this blog, and I'm quite pleased for the success of those executives I worked with to provide Iraqna a global SMS capability.

In August 2007, Zain's existing Iraq-based subsidiary, MTC-Atheer, made a successful bid of $1.25bn to secure one of three 15-year nationwide licenses awarded by the Iraqi Communication and Media Commission.

The Iraqna acquisition will consolidate MTC-Atheer's position in Iraq creating a solid operating base of  more than seven million customers. Mobile penetration in Iraq currently stands at about 33 per cent so there is plenty of room for growth in the Middle East's second most populous country.

ZAIN's Building a Regional Mobile Conglomerate

Commenting on the transaction, Dr. Saad Al Barrak, managing director-deputy chairman of Zain Group, stated:  "This investment reinforces and demonstrates our commitment to the future prosperity of Iraq while complementing Zain's aspirations of becoming a top ten global mobile operator by 2011." operations across the Middle East and Africa now serving more than 43 million customers.  Zain has operations now in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Dem. Republic of Congo, Rep. of Congo, and Gabon.

The expanded MTC-Atheer operation will have the second largest customer base in the Zain Group's 22 operations.

The "NewCo" operator's network will span over 15,000 sq km, covering all the major populated areas of Iraq and the network will be further expanded to cover all of Iraq in the future. Recently MTC-Atheer extended its services to Kirkuk in the north of Iraq. The enhanced MTC-Atheer operation in Iraq will be re-branded Zain in early 2008.

As an aside, I wonder if any of the western media will pick up on the "good" news story of how this fledgling operation built out a substantial business providing a needed service in the very difficult environment of war torn country?  Let alone a US$ 1.2 billion deal in economy that is supposed to be going to hell in a hand basket? It's testament to the hard working Iraqi employees and management of Iraqna that they were able to build and create such a valuation for their hard fought efforts. But don't hold your breath on the media picking this up....

So, What do you think of the acquisition of Iraqna? Does it positions Zain positively in the Middle East mobile market? What about Orascom selling off the asset, will it hurt them or help them? Do think the Middle East mobile market is over hyped or just taking off?

I am very proud to have readers in Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Iran in the region. Certainly some of you have insight that you would like to share with the rest of the MPV community? Let's start a conversation here, just to indicate to me that the Middle East mobile segment is as interesting to you as it is to me.

Birth by Mobile Light

First Light of Birth?

Acoording to Cellular News of London a power outage in a Russian hospital (city unknown) has forced a woman to give birth by the light of mobile phones due to a power failure blackened hospital.

After local generators failed, resourceful maternity nurses rounded up mobiles from visitors and medical staff and were ablt to generate enough light for the doctors to complete the birth. Mother and child are doing well according to reports.

This is not the first time a mobile has served as the source of surgical light. Reports exist last year of surgeons in Lahore, Pakistan regularly carrying out medical operations using the light from cellphone screens at times, due to persistent power failures in the national electricity supply.

= x (# lumens per Mobile) x Y mobiles= ?

A small (d=24") operating room lamp kicks out about 4,000 ft candles of illumination. Any handset techie out there willing to compute the ft candles generated by the average handset back-lit screen, and how many mobiles equal the standard operating theater lamp?

Mobile Social Networking & Ancient Talking Cultures

Oral is the core of Communications

The New York Times reported on Dec. 2nd on how the collective buzz of profile-surfing, messaging and “friending,”  which drives social networking services, seems to be tapping into our "ancient" forms of oral communication.

"The growing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Second Life has thrust many of us into a new world where we make “friends” with people we barely know, scrawl messages on each other’s walls and project our identities using totem-like visual symbols. “Orality is the base of all human experience,” says Lance Strate, a communications professor at Fordham University and devoted MySpace user. He says he is convinced that the popularity of social networks stems from their appeal to deep-seated, prehistoric patterns of human communication. “We evolved with speech,” he says. “We didn’t evolve with writing.”

Talking is the "New Black"

Clearly there are common parallels between online social networks and tribal societies. In the collective behavior of profile surfing, messaging, establishing and posting friends ("friending") there is a new assertion of old communicating styles and patterns. The argument is that social networks now fueled by the internet have arisen from the desire to express oneself in a more "talking" format than "writing." Blogs, comments, UGC video and the one liners they fuel via channels such as Twitter and Facebook are the new "talking."

I believe mobile communications are the ultimate access point for communications between humans, and these findings just fuel the argument that eventually mobile messaging and mobile voice are going to be both access points and channel for the social networking portals. That is where the industry will be migrating.

Flat Cloud Archietecture

The power of a short, asynchronous “snack” length communication has made text the dominant format. It taps into these same ancient needs we have as human beings and is a natural extension to the communicaiton style emerging from net social networks. Seems technology today with its instant communications, isn't that different from jungle drums, smoke signals, or cave paintings buried deep in our cerebellum.

Now with the onset of social networks, and the Times' reflection of this research, these social networks will drive a sea change in architecture as well. Why? Because a flat, open architecture will be driven by the need/demand for access by adjacent segment offerings seeking to directly link to the messaging networks, and by definition voice as well. The carriers’ control of a "hub and spoke" architecture will be subject to assault. Q:What are the adjacent segments? A:Social networks.

Access demand by these social networks, driven by our "ancient oral communications" style will be only the first attack on the operators to open up access to application providers, content developers, handset manufacturers and adjacent web communities such as social networks–all as a result of the continuing demand of humans to be "heard" as the Times' article implies. The entire communications ecosystem will seek access, which will be the primary driver of change. In fact, this is already happening through the initial developments of the “mobile internet.” 

“If you examine the Web through the lens of orality, you can’t help but see it everywhere,” says Irwin Chen in the Times article. Chen is a design instructor at Parsons School of Design who is developing a new course to explore the emergence of oral culture online. “Orality is participatory, interactive, communal and focused on the present. The Web is all of these things.”

Look to Mobile for the future of Oral Cultures

Well, that's not that surprising to those of us in the mobile communications field. The mobile web will be even more of an accelerant for social networks, since an "oral culture" unites people into groups. Oral cultures means more than just talking--there are strong social dynamics at work.

“In tribal cultures, your identity is completely wrapped up in the question of how people know you,” he says. “When you look at Facebook, you can see the same pattern at work: people projecting their identities by demonstrating their relationships to each other. You define yourself in terms of who your   friends are.”

Well, we already see that in research on the mobile address book. Notwithstanding hundreds ( or thousands ) of connections in a mobile address book, we tend to communicate with the same core 10 to 20 people. Seems our "oral tradition" and tribal history caps out at that size based survival needs as an individual and as a group. This Darwinian scaled group size may be the optimal comfort level we seek.

Mobile is the Nuclear Access Point

With over 3.3 billion mobile users (probably more since in "ancient Africa" the average number of user per handset exceeds 1.0) establishing "oral communication" as the trend of convergence between social networks. "orality" and mobility, for both channel and access points, will only increase. The mobile phone will eventually be the "nuclear access point" for all communications, tethered web, and unteathered web or over the air.  Read the Times' article here.

OK. Now its your turn. What do you think of the prospects of Social Networking affecting will affect mobile communications? Do you think there's a connection here, or I'm just muddled minded? What do you think of the academic take on the commercial supply demand reaction of communications and social sub cultures? Comments are very welcome, let's get it on!