World Online offers mobile portal, cellphones

By Phillip de Wet for Tiscali

Johannesburg, 14 Mar 2002

Tiscali World Online, SA`s second biggest dial-up Internet service provider (ISP), has launched a mobile portal with a range of free and paid-for services.

Mobile.worldonline.co.za aggregates a number of services offered for some time, such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) access and a dial-in e-mail-to-voice service, but also introduces new services from parent company Tiscali.

Tiscali bought the ISP outright early this year, removing Vodacom as shareholder in a deal thought to be worth in the region of R30 million.

The portal is to target both corporations and consumers.

New services include Mobile Eyes, a system that monitors Web sites for updates and notifies users when they occur, and an e-mail to fax gateway branded WorldFax is to follow shortly.

Also in the works is a Web-based bulk SMS system and a "mobile flirt" service, which allows users to send anonymous flirtatious e-mails. The latter has proven popular in Europe.

Most of the services are not specific to World Online dial-up or Vodacom customers. Free SMSs, for instance, can be sent to all three of the local networks from the Web site.

Natalie Thayer, portal GM for World Online, says SA is one of four test sites for the mobile portal Tiscali is developing. "They were looking for another country to be part of the test group and they were very impressed with what we are doing here," she says. Once the concept is proven here and in Denmark, Italy and the UK, it is to be rolled out to the other European countries where Tiscali has operations.

The portal is expected to see sudden growth once World Online starts operations as a Vodacom service provider. A service provider licence was one of the conditions of the Tiscali deal, and the company says it will start offering cellphones and airtime in April. "We will pre-configure all our handsets to use the portal," Thayer says.

Uptake is also expected from the well-established World Online main portal. The company claims to have more than one million users visit the site in any given month, but its traffic is not publicly audited.