The City of Johannesburg plans to send some 700 000 bills to citizens via MMS instead of entrusting them to the postal service.
The shift has raised several questions from some of its more than one million account-holders. ITWeb asked the city to address some issues, which are bulleted below.
1. The campaign started on 2 July.
2. Customers were selected from the city's database.
3. Moving to MMS allows the city to go green and eliminates the potential of delayed or missing statements due to the postal system.
4. The MMS service has an audit trail, allowing the city to see if statements have been sent and viewed, and enables instant receipt of bills.
5. The city is gradually doing away with paper statements.
6. The service provider has been sending MMS statements for the past three years to more than 18 municipalities in South Africa.
7. Moving to MMS statements will save the city a few million rand a month.
8. The other municipalities that use this service have boosted debt collection, increased or sustained revenue levels, and achieved considerable cost savings.
9. Most postpaid utility users in the city have access to a cellphone.
10. Customers will still receive printed statements until they have notified the city of their preferred option: post, e-mail or MMS.
11. With the MMS option, consumers will get a printed statement every three months.
Share