Page 14 - Mobile World Daily - Day 2

NEWS
Telstra prepares
for data tsunami
by avoiding
'unlimited' data
By Ronan Shields
Mobile operators must avoid
the over-supply of
unlimited and free data
plans in order to maintain the
network investment necessary to
cope with the upcoming "data
tsunami", fuelled by growing demand
for next-generation services, such as
connected cars and LTE broadcast,
according to Mike Wright (pictured),
Telstra, general manager, networks.
Speaking with Mobile World Daily
ahead of a panel session scheduled
to take place on Thursday, where
he will discuss the challenges of
transitioning from a voice-centric
network provider to a data-led one,
Wright said operators need
recurring data-generated revenue
streams to keep pace with
consumer demand.
Wright added: "Revenue underpins
investment so we need to avoid
Mobile phone ownership
report reveals gender
gap of 200M women
By Anne Morris
More than 1.7 billion females
in low- and middle-income
countries do not own
mobile phones, creating a gender
gap of 200 million fewer women
than men owning mobile phones.
According to a new report from
the GSMA titled Bridging the
Gender Gap: Mobile Access and
Usage in Low- and Middle-income
Countries, women on average are
14 per cent less likely to own a
mobile phone than men.
In particular, women in South Asia
are 38 per cent less likely to own a
phone than men, highlighting that
the gender gap in mobile phone
ownership is wider in certain parts of
the world. Even when women own
mobile phones, there is a significant
disparity in mobile phone usage.
However, the report found that
mobile phones are important tools
for enhancing the lives of women in
low- and middle-income countries.
What’s more, achieving parity in
ownership and use between men and
PAGE 14 Tuesday 3rd March
unlimited and free data. Our
foundation has been volume-based
charging and providing our
customers with value through options
like shared data plans - packages that network investment and innovation
allow customers to share their
monthly data allowance between
their mobile and data devices."
Telstra, the biggest mobile
operator in Australia with over 16
million domestic retail mobile
customers, invested $850 million
on its network infrastructure in the
last year, according to its 2014
annual report.
Wright said this level of
investment had to be maintained if
Telstra is to meet with customer
demand, especially as consumers
are increasingly asking for "value
add services" - such as connected
cars and LTE Broadcast - which
require expanded network capacity.
"The challenge for carriers is
staying ahead of the curve to meet
women in low- and middle-income
countries could unlock an estimated
US$170 billion market opportunity
for the mobile industry by 2020.
“By addressing the gender gap in
mobile phone ownership and use,
we will deliver substantial benefits
for women, the mobile industry
and the broader economy,” said
Anne Bouverot, director general of
the GSMA.
The top five barri ers to women
owning and using mobile phones
from a customer perspective are
cost; network quality and coverage;
customer demand, now and into
the future as the data tsunami
continues," he said. "We have a
strong focus on ongoing, strategic
to maintain – and grow - our
customer base. We are competing
not only on coverage – which in a
country the size of Australia is a
challenge – but on the quality of
service."
Other participants in the Thursday
panel session, which will be hosted
in auditorium 5, include: Vasyl
Latsanych, MTS CMO; Yogesh
Malik, VimpelCom’s group CTO; and
Graham Wilde, BWCS’ CEO.
security and harassment via mobile;
operator or agent trust; and technical
literacy and confidence issues.
“Taken together, our research
indicates that the gender gap in
mobile ownership and use is driven
by a complex set of socio-
economic and cultural barriers that
negatively affect women. Without
targeted intervention from the
mobile industry, policy makers, and
other stakeholders, the gender gap
in ownership and use is unlikely to
close naturally on its own,”
Bouverot said.
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS DAILY 2015 | www.mobileworldcongress.com
Mobile
money
active users
jump 41% —
GSMA report
By Joseph Waring
The number of active mobile
money users expanded 41 per
cent last year to more than
100 million, according to a report by officer, Tom Phillips. “Mobile is a
the GSMA’s Mobile Money for the
Unbanked (MMU) programme.
The report found that in three-
quarters of the markets where
mobile money is available agent
outlets outnumbered bank branches,
and in 25 markets there are more
than ten times as many mobile
money agents as bank branches.
Half of all new mobile money
launches took place outside of the
Sub-Saharan Africa region. In Latin
America and the Caribbean, for
example, the number of active
accounts increased by 50 per cent.
The fourth annual report, entitled they are playing in the development
Mobile Financial Services State of
the Industry, provides a quantitative
assessment of the state of mobile-
based financial services, including
money, insurance, savings and
credit. The report draws on the
MasterCard launches
mobile remittance services
in Zimbabwe and Nigeria
By Anne Morris
MasterCard has teamed up
with financial service
providers in Zimbabwe
and Nigeria to make mobile money
remittance services available to
banking customers via the
HomeSend international money
transfer hub.
In Zimbabwe, the partnership
with Steward Bank means that the
bank’s 1.5 million customers will be
able to receive funds sent by family
and friends abroad directly into
their Steward Bank accounts.
In the next phase, Steward Bank’s
sister company EcoCash will also
connect to HomeSend to enable
more than four million EcoCash
mobile money customers to receive
remittances into their mobile
money wallets.
“Thousands of under-banked
Zimbabwean families are
dependent on funds sent by
relatives working in other countries. gap between the finance and
Now, through the partnership with
MasterCard and HomeSend, these
citizens have access to affordable,
convenient money transfer
services,” said Dr Lance
Mambondiani, acting CEO of
Steward Bank.
results of the annual MMU global
adoption survey of mobile financial
services, as well as data from the
online MMU deployment tracker.
“As this report demonstrates,
mobile financial services have an
important social and economic
impact on millions of people in
emerging markets around the
world,” said GSMA chief regulatory
key enabling tool for financial
inclusion and over the last year,
we’ve seen significant growth in
mobile financial services, not only in
the number of services and
geographies served, but also in the
breadth of products that are now
available to previously unbanked
individuals.”
Mobile money has been growing
rapidly over the past few years, and
with 255 services in 89 countries,
mobile money is now available in
61 per cent of developing markets.
Mobile operators have led in the
provision of 149 of these services,
demonstrating the growing role
of the mobile money industry.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the
birthplace of mobile money, over
50 per cent of all mobile operators
have already launched a mobile
money service and by the end of
last year, 23 per cent of all mobile
connections there were linked with
a mobile money account.
In Nigeria, MasterCard has
formed an agreement with
eTranzact International, a pan-
African mobile banking and
payment services company, in
order to make international
remittance services available to
millions of consumers in Nigeria.
“Our partnership with
MasterCard enables us to bring a
new, cost-effective, cross-border
remittance service to Nigerians,
many of whom have previously
struggled to access such facilities as
they do not have formal bank
accounts,” said Valentine Obi, CEO
of eTranzact International. “Instead
of travelling long distances and
waiting in long lines, Nigerians will
now be able to electronically
receive cash transfers from family
overseas with the convenience of
their mobile devices.”
The remittances are sent via
HomeSend, which was established
as a joint venture by MasterCard,
eServGlobal and BICS to bridge the
telecommunication worlds by
integrating the systems of multiple
providers - be they mobile or
electronic wallets, traditional
money transfer systems or banking
systems.