Vodacom will launch a mobile Internet banking service on Monday in conjunction with Absa Bank. The service will be based on 32k SIM card, SMS and wireless Internet gateway technology.
This is the second service of its kind in SA, with Absa teaming up with MTN in August last year to offer mobile banking. Absa says the Vodacom initiative will see a stronger marketing drive than the MTN alliance. MTN was not available for comment at time of publication.
Vodacom`s cellular banking will initially be launched in Gauteng. "From Monday, we will tap into in excess of five million Vodacom users and six million Absa customers to capture the mobile banking market," says Santie Botha, Absa`s group executive director responsible for e-business.
The service is enabled by Vodacom`s 32k SIM card, which allows users to download menus to their phones to navigate through a light version of Absa`s Internet banking system. The 32k card also allows for encryption of information sent and received.
Packets of data are sent to and from the phone through SMS. Absa says it chose short messaging service over Wireless Application Protocol as it is cheaper for the consumer.
"Mobile commerce is a reality; it`s not fiction. It`s a paradigm that`s changing the way we work and way we live. The cellphone is going to be the instrument for most of it," says Joan Joffe, Vodacom group executive, corporate affairs.
The service costs R12 per month, and transaction costs vary from R1 to R2. The 32k SIM card retails for a suggested R150. The monthly subscription and transaction costs for new subscribers will be waived for the first three months that the service is in operation.
Absa says it has spent R1 million on its back-end integration for the service, and the bank`s advertising spend will come from its Internet marketing budget. Vodacom will spend R1 million on advertising.
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