GraceKennedy Payment Services receives approval for mobile money service

GraceKennedy Payment Services has received approval from the Bank of Jamaica to proceed with the pilot introduction of a mobile money service.    
Delivery of the service will commence next year through the GraceKennedy Money Services network.     
Participants in the service will, among other things, be able to make electronic payments, bill payments, as well as mobile top-up. This will be done using mobile phones, thereby minimising the cost of doing business.

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GraceKennedy Payment Services receives approval for mobile money service

GraceKennedy Payment Services receives approval for mobile money service

GraceKennedy Payment Services has received approval from the Bank of Jamaica to proceed with the pilot introduction of a mobile money service.    
Delivery of the service will commence next year through the GraceKennedy Money Services network.     
Participants in the service will, among other things, be able to make electronic payments, bill payments, as well as mobile top-up. This will be done using mobile phones, thereby minimising the cost of doing business.

View the original article here

GraceKennedy Payment Services receives approval for mobile money service

GK gets nod for mobile money

GRACEKENNEDY Payment Services (GKPS) got approval from the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) to proceed with a pilot introduction of a mobile money service.

The company plans to deploy commercial operations in 2015 through its GraceKennedy Money Services (GKMS) network.

The mobile money platform will facilitate the movement of money to make electronic payments: cash in and cash out, remittance loads, business to consumer loads, bill payments, mobile top up and peer-to-peer transfers.

“Ultimately, this is a really big opportunity for us, as the approval from the central bank has given us the chance to introduce a really innovative and game-changing product into the financial sector,” said Don Wehby, CEO of GraceKennedy Group. “Mobile money is safe and convenient, and will allow consumers to access and use money even from the most basic mobile phones. With this shift to a portable alternative to money services, we expect a seamless fit into today’s busy lifestyle.”

Mobile money will ensure greater convenience and reduction in the time it takes to do a transaction while on the go.

Consumers will be able to conduct transactions using their cellphones to pay for basic services, including taxi cab payments, or making more advanced purchases from a wide range of retailers, thereby minimising the costs associated with doing business.

Additionally, consumers may also transfer money from one person to another more quickly, safely and easily.

“It’s exciting to think about how this will change lives, from the very basic purchase of food from a ‘pan chicken’ man to the small farmer, who — based on where he is located — cannot access traditional financial services,” said Michelle Allen, Chief Executive Officer, GraceKennedy Money Services. “Mobile money will deliver unprecedented access to money and business transactions, right into that farmer’s hands.”

GraceKennedy plans to expand its mobile money services regionally, after launching in Jamaica, as long as the regulations in the target countries allow it, according to Wehby.

“The expansive GraceKennedy network will offer unparalleled access for users to initiate transactions, charting the way for a safe, secure and cashless system, with easy access to money,” he said. “We are really excited about the potential of this product.”

GKMS offers services in 14 Caribbean countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda and The British Virgin Islands.

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GK gets nod for mobile money

LIME cuts cost for mobile internet customers

LIME has cut the calling cost for all customers with mobile internet by 30 percent.The company said since Wednesday, its mobile customers with internet on their phones will pay $1.99 to make calls from the instrument. To qualify customers will just have to activate any 30 day mobile internet plan.LIME said the move, which is not a promotion, is in recognition that the future of mobile networks lies in data. In April, LIME began upgrades to its network to enhance its data offerings. The company is currently spending 8 billion dollars on that project.

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LIME cuts cost for mobile internet customers

$1.99 for LIME"s prepaid mobile Internet customers

Carlo Redwood

Telecoms value provider LIME has introduced a lower call rate of $1.99 per minute for prepaid mobile Internet customers.

The new ‘MVP’ or Mobile Internet Voice Plan rate became effective last Wednesday. It gives customers on its popular ‘Talk EZ’ prepaid plan a reduction of more than 30 per cent on all local calls and to the USA, Canada and landlines in the UK, once they have activated any 30-day mobile Internet plan.

Carlo Redwood, LIME’s VP, marketing, said the move represents the company’s continued commitment to offer the best value in the market for telecoms services.

“Research has told us that more and more Jamaicans have a growing appetite for data services and this move will make it even easier for our customers to avail themselves of the power of mobile internet, while still being able to keep in touch with friends and family for one low affordable rate – now the lowest prepaid calling rate on the market,” Redwood said.

In April, LIME began upgrades to its mobile network valued at more than J$8 billion that will see the company offering enhance 4G HSPA+ data services across the island.

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$1.99 for LIME"s prepaid mobile Internet customers

Yahoo tunes into mobile video

Business

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

CALIFORNIA, USA — YAHOO is auditioning for a bigger role on iPhones and iPads with the release of its first mobile application tailored for watching video on touch-control screens.The app, called Yahoo Screen, is set up to make the experience of sifting through video on smartphones and tablet computers more like channel surfing on a television. Instead of relying on a TV remote control, users of the Yahoo Screen app unveiled Monday will use their fingers to flip through programmes and sort through roughly 20 different channels separated into categories such as celebrities, sports, games and food.The app is available only for Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad, but Yahoo Inc intends to develop a version compatible with the much larger universe of devices powered by Google’s Android software.Yahoo Screen is the latest offshoot of company CEO Marissa Mayer’s crusade to make Yahoo’s services part of their daily routines. Mayer has been emphasising the need for better mobile applications and more compelling video since Yahoo lured her away from a top executive job at Google 14 months ago.The new app was built in New York by an engineering team led by Robby Stein, whose expertise was imported last October when Yahoo bought his start-up, Stamped, for an undisclosed amount. It marked the first of about 20 acquisitions that Mayer has made as Yahoo’s CEO and reunited her with Stein, who had previously worked at Google before launching his start-up.“This gives us a great product in a key area of people’s lives,” Stein said of Yahoo Screen. “Watching video has become something people do almost as much as they check e-mail and we think we have come up with something that is as intuitive to use as your TV.”To trumpet the arrival of its video app, Yahoo also is rolling out eight comedy series made exclusively for its website along with clips from more than 700 episodes of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” broadcast during the past 38 years. Yahoo announced its deals to show the “Saturday Night Live” highlights and the new comedy series in April. As part of a new deal with Viacom Inc. revealed Monday, Yahoo Screen also will show clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and MTV News.Borrowing a concept popularised by Netflix’s Internet video subscription service, Yahoo is releasing all the episodes of the new comedy series at once so viewers can watch the instalments in rapid succession if they want.Netflix’s decision to simultaneously release the episodes of exclusive series as House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black has proved so popular that it has intensified a phenomenon known as binge viewing.

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Yahoo tunes into mobile video

LIME sees mobile subscriber base jump, but losses double

Business

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

CONSUMERS flocked to LIME Jamaica’s mobile network but the company still recorded a $808-million net loss for the three months to June, or more than double year-earlier losses.The telecom’s mobile subscriber base jumped nearly one-quarter as rates were slashed by some two-thirds in early June as part of a marketing campaign facilitated by regulatory rate cuts.LIME indicated that total revenues dipped 10 per cent to $4.3 billion due to fixed line and broadband declines but mobile revenues actually grew 10 per cent over the period.Consequently LIME’s management is encouraged by the results.“We continued the encouraging progress in our mobile business with a 10 per cent increase in mobile services revenue over the same period,” stated LIME Jamaica’s CEO Garry Sinclair in a statement accompanying the financials.The reduction in LIME rates actually preceded a regulatory adjustment by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).“We took a strategic decision to launch our anywhere, anytime, anyone talk EZ plan on June 7 prior to the OUR’s implementation of final and further reduced mobile termination rates on July 1,” indicated Sinclair in the statement accompanying the financials. “The new plan has resonated well with customers and has already resulted in a 22 per cent increase in our subscriber base year over year.“We expect to continue increasing market share in the mobile business.”LIME tightly manages information on its network size, and did not disclose its size in the June quarterly report.The OUR in its Cost Model for Mobile Termination Rates – Determination Notice, May 2013 described Digicel Jamaica as holding 84 per cent mobile market share in a two player market which places LIME at 16 per cent prior to the rate cut.LIME cut rates from $6.99 to $2.99 across networks and for international calls to the diaspora since June.The OUR implemented a new mobile termination rate of $1.10 per minute in July which followed resistance and legal fights from stakeholders over a decade.Sinclair explained that the fixed line business continues to suffer declines due to the “diminishing subscriber base and a reduction in the fixed termination rate which was effective from June 2012″.Broadband revenues declined by 11 per cent as a result of net reduction in subscribers and the introduction of low priced packages such as browse and talk, said Sinclair.LIME Jamaica recorded a J$4.9-billion total loss for its March 2013 year end compared with a $20-billion loss a year earlier.LIME Jamaica’s CEO Garry Sinclair said the company expects to continue increasing mobile market share, but gave no indication when the company may exit its profit slump.

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LIME sees mobile subscriber base jump, but losses double

Apple buys two start-ups to improve its mobile maps

Business

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple has bought online mapping services HopStop and Locationary as part of its ongoing effort to create a more formidable alternative to Google’s navigation system.The acquisitions confirmed over last weekend give Apple Incorporated more tools to round out the maps that it embeds in the mobile operating system running its iPhones and iPads. Apple relied on Google Inc for the built-in maps on those devices until switching to its own system last year.The switch turned into an embarrassment for Apple when iPhone and iPad users discovered the maps sometimes gave faulty directions and misplaced famous landmarks. Apple CEO Tim Cook ended up apologising for the gaffes, and recommended iPhone and iPad users to rely on Google’s maps until improvements could be made.When Google released a new mapping app for the iPhone late last year, it quickly became one of the most downloaded programmes for the device. Google’s maps are also widely used on mobile devices running on that company’s Android software, as well as through Web browsers on personal computers.Apple, which is based in Cupertino, California, isn’t saying how it plans to deploy its latest acquisition.“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” company spokesman Kristin Huguet said.New York-based HopStop provides directions to major transit systems and biking routes, popular features on Google’s maps.Locationary, which is based in Toronto, collects and analyses data to help create more precise maps.Terms of the acquisitions weren’t disclosed.Google paid US$1.03 billion last month to buy an Israel startup called Waze that relies on social networking to monitor local traffic conditions.— AP

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Apple buys two start-ups to improve its mobile maps

LIME plans "broader availability" for Mobile TV

Business

Julian RichardsonFriday, June 28, 2013

KINGSTON, Jamaica – LIME says its Mobile TV service, which it suspended last month, is limited “by handsets and geography”.Against this background, the telecommunication company said it plans to revamp and relaunch the offering.“We are planning to re-launch with broader availability on handsets and geography. Timing will depend on completing the technical build-out and we will keep customers informed,” Garfield Sinclair, LIME Jamaica’s CEO told Caribbean Business Report.Developed in collaboration with cable company DC Digital, the technology provides customers with access to television and cable channels from their mobile phones.LIME suspended the service in early May, just over two years after predicting at the product launch that it would revolutionise the way people interact with mobile devices. The move raised speculation as to whether the project was troubled for lack of subscription.Meanwhile the company says it did not spend US$100 million on Mobile TV, as has been reported repeatedly in the press since its launch.Sinclair, during a recent webcast and press briefing, said the figure is “far from” the real cost of providing Mobile TV service. He explained to journalists that, “for U$100M you could build out two advanced 4G mobile networks, so to use that figure as our spend on a Mobile TV feature of overall cellular service would be fanciful.”

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LIME plans "broader availability" for Mobile TV