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Metacom eyes Australia, Middle East

The developer of mobile financial transaction devices is exploring opportunities to offer its technology in Australia and the Middle East.

Johannesburg, 18 Sep 2008

Metacom, a Cape Town-based developer of mobile financial transaction devices, is exploring opportunities to offer its technology in Australia and the Middle East.

R'ean van Niekerk, Metacom MD, says this comes after the company has rolled out its CellPAD solution to the major banks in South Africa (Absa, FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank) as well as large retailers, including the Ackerman Group, Clicks, Pick 'n Pay Family stores and petrol companies, including Shell, Caltex and BP.

CellPAD is a financial transactions device that facilitates wireless processing of debit card and credit card payments.

"Metacom then expanded the solution to the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, with transactions being processed over a secure Internet infrastructure.

"We're now looking to take the solutions into Australia and the Middle East. We plan to have test devices in these countries by the end of the year, with some client deployments in 2009," he says.

This will involve exporting its hardware to these new markets, as well as sending staff with the technical expertise to deploy and support the hardware, he adds.

Wireless solutions

Founded in 2002, Metacom designs and manufactures GSM-based solutions. Its CellPAD solution connects to the point of sale device and uses the SIM card inside to send financial transaction data or payment information from the retailer's shop to the bank's back end, which then accepts or rejects the transaction.

CellPAD also enables services like prepaid airtime transactions, third-party account payments and prepaid electricity.

"Metacom was the first company approved by local financial institutions to do transactions over cellular networks. We were also the first company to have a corporate APN within the infrastructure of mobile providers Vodacom and MTN, and because of that, we are regarded as pioneers in the field," says Van Niekerk.

Another solution that Metacom developed and manufactures is the Metacom Large Power Use Monitor System, which is used for the monitoring of three phase power systems and reporting capability over GPRS or SMS, says Van Niekerk.

Currently, Metacom is the only approved vendor for providing the solution for national power provider, Eskom, he says.

"Metacom is a recognised leader in its field and due to its superb market position it has spawned two other successful companies, Datalinx Technologies and Invisinet Technologies," says Van Niekerk.

The two companies draw on the Metacom pool of expertise to successfully penetrate the financial transaction processing and human resource management industries.

High expectations

Van Niekerk feels very strongly that its solutions should improve lives. "I have always been passionate about developing technologies that makes our lives easier while remaining unobtrusive," he says.

He is optimistic about how Metacom's solutions will perform internationally. The fact that the solutions are GSM-based makes it easy to deploy them in any country in the world.

"We're optimistic that after our initial deployment in four countries we will do well in markets further afield," he says.

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