Voice of the Customer

TMCnet - The World's Largest Communications and Technology Community
New Coverage :  Asterisk  |  Call Center Outsourcing  |  Call Recording  |  SIP Trunking  |  Hosted Exchange  |  PBX
Webinars
Channels by Topic
Share
 
| More
RSS-XML alerts
Print this page
E-mail this page to a friend
Voice of the Customer Featured Article Archive

TMCNet: Telecoms Shift Focus to Internet As Demand Grows

[July 02, 2009]

Telecoms Shift Focus to Internet As Demand Grows

Jul 02, 2009 (Business Daily/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Kenya's mobile providers are moving to strengthen their Internet offerings in response to growing demand for services over the last quarter.

Zain Kenya has announced a 25 per cent cost reduction for the unlimited Internet package in a move aimed at growing its market share in the increasingly competitive data business, while its rivals Telkom Kenya and Safaricom announced the launch of online portals geared at driving more subscribers to use data services.

Free USB modemIn a statement, Zain Kenya managing director Rene Meza said the company was now focusing on growing the data business by ensuring widespread access to the internet.

"Reliable and affordable Internet will spur growth in key sectors of the economy and also create new areas of entrepreneurship, similar to those that have been created through the introduction of mobile telephony in Kenya," said Mr Meza.

Following Zain's reduction, customers who sign up for the service will now enjoy unlimited Internet for Sh2,995 per month down from Sh3,999 and will also receive a free USB modem.

In addition, customers who subscribe to the service which is only accessible to post-paid users, will now pay a deposit of Sh5,000 down from Sh10,000, however they will be required to sign up for a minimum of 12 months to enjoy the unlimited Internet access.

On its part, Telkom Kenya became the second mobile operator to launch an online portal after its competitor Safaricom officially launched its version last week.

Telkom's Orange World is an online gateway offering subscribers news, sports, games, listings, travel information and entertainment while on the move, and signals the company's desire to tap into the growing numbers of Kenyan consumers who access the web using their mobiles.

"This will probably even be the next must-have playground accessory. Our service will be affordable and phone handset prices will probably experience a substantial price drop in the next few months," said Jean-Michel Chanut, head of marketing and Strategy at Telkom Kenya.

Last week, Safaricom launched its portal (www.safaricom.com) hoping to provide free content for its over 1.6 million subscribers who access the Internet using their phones.

Telkom Kenya will allow subscribers to its mobile service one month's free access after which it plans to charge for access to news, entertainment and information channels.

Mr Chanut said he believed that sales of WAP-enabled, or Internet-enabled mobile phone handsets would usurp current handsets as must-have gadgets in coming months.

Meanwhile, an unlikely pairing between France Telecom and stationary manufacturer BIC, has resulted in a new mobile phone which marks a shift in consumer trends as developed markets turn from high-end models to cheaper devices.

The Bic mobile phone is a pre- chargeable mobile telephone that is ready-to-use when purchased, with an inserted SIM card and free airtime.

The low-priced mobile focuses on the basic functions for a telephone: sending and receiving calls and SMSs.

The Sh3,500 phone has achieved sales of over 110,000 units since it was first launched in France in August last year and is said to enjoy wide public appeal, not least due to its functional simplicity, but also to its 'no commitment' offer.

France Telecom, who owns a share in Telkom Kenya, said it was planning to roll out the phone to the markets in which it operates.

[ Back To Voice of the Customer Community's Homepage ]
› Return to Voice of the Customer Home

FOLLOW US

FREE Voice of the Customer eNewsletter

Subscribe Now

Featured White Papers

  • Seven Best Practices for Speech Analytics: Speech analytics is valuable for identifying issues in the contact center. However, limiting its use to the contact center only considers a portion of all customer interactions and subsequently only reveals a small part of the voice of the customer. This paper discusses how organizations can optimize their Speech Analytics implementation strategy to realize the promise of this exciting technology.
  • Understanding the Voice of the Customer: Today's contact centers involve a sea of information that must be captured, processed, and distributed on a daily basis. Effective use of this information enables companies to remain competitive in an increasingly aggressive and customer centric marketplace. An overwhelming percentage of the information that circulates in a contact center's audio recordings, documents, web pages, and emails is unstructured in that it resides outside of a normal structured database and cannot be managed efficiently. These unstructured items contain valuable information, yet this information historically has been difficult to organize, categorize, and access.
View All ›

Case Studies

  • Aflac: Aflac, the leading provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance turned to Autonomy to help them automate the process of monitoring their contact center agent for quality and compliance. The company now has a system that can offer continued improvement in agent quality and productivity while enhancing the customer experience. ...
  • Avaya: Avaya, a global leader in business communications, inherited 880 websites as well as numerous intranets and extranets when it was spun off from Lucent Technologies. The sheer volume and diversity of the sites and the over 500 content creators resulted in inefficient content distribution rife with divergent branding, messaging, and product information. ...
View All ›

Video Showcase

    Interview with Autonomy: Rich Tehrani interviews Simon Hayhurst, SVP of Autonomy

Featured Events

  • Multichannel Analytics with Autonomy Explore: In today's world of constant connectivity there are a variety of direct and indirect channels of communication between an enterprise (or a brand) and its customers. 80% of these valuable interactions are generated in a human-friendly, unstructured format across multiple touchpoints and channels. With this ever growing mountain of information how do you extract the emerging trends and topics of interest to the enterprise? ...
  • SES Chicago 2011: Marketers and SEO professionals attend SES Chicago each year to network and learn about topics such as PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more. The conference offers 70+ sessions, intensive training workshops, and an expo floor packed with companies that can help you grow your business. While you're at it, network with peers and leading industry vendors. Programmed by the SES advisory board, you can be assured - SES content really is king! ...
View All ›
 
Share
 
| More
RSS-XML alerts
Print this page
E-mail this page to a friend