Wireless data provider model draws interest

MTN`s wireless data provider (WDP) model has elicited significant interest from the banking security and logistic industries, says MTN Network Solutions (NS) CEO Mike Brierley.

Brierley says the new model, which provides connectivity between a company`s mobile workforce and its back-end system, appeals to companies because the model provides for reverse billing for data charges back to the company and is significantly cheaper.

"Employee data calls from an employee`s cellphone are reverse billed to the company at a flat rate of R8.67 per megabyte, which works out to 1c per 1 000 characters of data. This is an improvement on the previous system, which worked on a sliding scale depending on the amount of traffic that was sent, and is significantly cheaper than SMS solutions," he says.

The GPRS solution allows retailers to verify every transaction done through a credit card, lowers the cost for companies previously using SMS fleet management solutions, and allows courier firms to update employee routes without them having to return to the office, Brierley says.

Brierley says MTN NS is the first WDP to be appointed by MTN. While MTN holds a majority stake in MTN NS, Brierley says other companies will also be able to apply to MTN to become WDPs.

"MTN NS is a network solutions provider and can provide companies with the connection between MTN`s GSM network and their back-end systems. As a WDP, we will also provide the billing functionality as well as the invoicing of the client.

"However, as new WPDs come into the market, they will also be able to provide those billing services and invoice the companies. If they are an application service provider, they will have to sub-contract a network service provider to provide the client with connectivity."

Brierley says the ability for a company to choose a WPD to take on the full responsibility for providing the end-to-end GRPS solution is important because in the past companies were billed by every supplier in the value chain.

"In the past, the application service provider, the cellular service provider who provided the billing and the network service provider would have all billed the company for the services they provided. Now that responsibility falls to one entity - the WPD," he says.

The product has been dubbed CorporateMobility by MTN and Brierley says there are exciting options for the use of GPRS. "Devices such as rainfall monitors, generators or pumps in rural areas could send data through to a company monitoring their performance through GPRS without somebody having to go out and check them."

Brierley says cellphones like the new Nokia 9500 communicator will be able to connect to a company network via GPRS or WiFi.

"An employee would then be able to use their cellphone to connect to the back-end system of the company via a hotspot or through GPRS, whichever is easier."

Brierley says while hotspots may in the future be a cheaper medium to send data back to a company (presuming the hotspot functions on a subscription basis), GPRS will always have its place because it can be used wherever there is cellphone signal, while WiFi is restricted to hotspots.