MTN, Indian firm in mobile content deal

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13 October 2009

 

Pan-African cellular operator MTN has announced a tie-up with IMImobile, an India-based software and managed services company, to provide over 100-million of its subscribers with a variety of online content.

 

The strategic partnership between the two will entail providing MTN’s 21 markets access to a repository of current and globally popular content through enhanced delivery platforms.

 

Content categories will include music with a local and international flavour, sports, games, entertainment and news.

 

Insight, expertise

 

MTN’s Nozipho January-Bardill said IMImobile was selected from a group of major firms because of the scalability of its technology platforms and proven managed services business model.

 

“IMImobile’s value proposition and technology solutions will enable MTN to reduce the time-to-market for new services, boost average revenue per user and keep MTN at the forefront of innovative services,” January-Bardill said in a statement earlier this month.

 

“We have found a partner in IMImobile that has the insight and expertise of the appropriate managed service business model and technology solution necessary to continue to deliver premium content and services to our customers.”

 

Fifa World Cup content

 

One of MTN’s new content streams will be the 2010 Fifa World Cup™, for which the mobile operator has exclusive global mobile content rights. Accordingly, MTN will leverage its IMImobile partnership to deliver exclusive World Cup content on subscribers’ handsets, including soccer match news, fixtures, match results as well as team and group profiles.

 

MTN introduced a number of products and services on its portal and on www.mtnfootball.com during the Fifa Confederations Cup in June this year. This content is currently being archived to allow football fans to re-live the moment long after the games.

 

Mobile data services

 

With revenues from mobile content and services estimated to rise from US$89.3-billion in 2006 to $150.2-billion in 2011, MTN is hoping to capitalise on the rapidly converging data, content and voice market – with Africa, the Middle East and Latin America poised to witness the highest growth in revenue as additional mobile data services are being deployed in those regions.

 

IMImobile will deploy its service delivery platform, including its industry leading DaVinci content management system, while the content strategy includes tailoring content for local consumer preferences, including French and Arabic, as well as exploiting MTN’s sponsorship of the World Cup through www.mtnfootball.com.

 

“This is a major commercial milestone for IMImobile as we continue to build our offering to support leading operators worldwide,” said IMImobile founder and CEO Vishwanath Alluri. “We are excited by the opportunity and are looking forward to helping MTN achieve its objectives of creating substantial additional revenue streams.”

 

SAinfo reporter

 

 

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