SABC grows cellular presence

Johannesburg, 27 Mar 2006

The SABC and Foneworx, a subsidiary of Interconnective Solutions, have signed a partnership deal aimed at increasing the mobile interactive services offered by the SABC.

"We'll now be able to take services to the market faster, offer smoother functionality and in time introduce innovative new services," says Philip van Tonder, MD of SABC Mobile, a division of the SABC.

News clips

One of the plans being discussed is a streaming TV service using 3G, allowing people to watch news clips on their phones, according to Mark Smith, CEO of Foneworx and Interconnective Solutions.

"The emphasis will be on bringing SABC content to the phone, in line with the increasing convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting," says Van Tonder.

He adds that the SABC "would want to be active in the mobile content providing industry", and does not rule out possible future partnerships with network operators.

Smith predicts more business applications will be developed through the partnership. Foneworx's Virtual Business Centre (VBC) currently allows - among other services - voice over Internet Protocol calling, accounting products, fax to e-mail, PC to fax, diary and address book features, and data storage.

VBC is a disk that is loaded onto a browser on a PC and set-up to interact with wireless devices.

Exclusive partnership

SABC Mobile offers a variety of interactive cellular services, including the business directory 'ifind 34600', a mobile dictionary, lottery information, mobile games and news alerts.

"We will continue with all the existing services [which are currently spread around various service providers], but our intention is to migrate all our services to Foneworx in the future," notes Van Tonder.

Foneworx has been an SABC partner for the past seven years, but previously only provided SMS and interactive voice recognition services.

The value of the deal was not clear at the time of publication since financial details still had to be finalised, according to Smith.