­Afghanistan based mobile network, Roshan has expanded its mobile money service, M-Paisa to payments for tickets with the Kam Air airline.

Customers who purchase tickets through M-paisa will also receive 10% off the airline purchase price.

"As part of our commitment to bringing innovative services to Afghanistan, we are pleased to be partnering with Kam Air, to bring the convenience and safety of mobile purchases to our customers. This partnership expands our growing merchant network throughout the country, providing more ways for Roshan customers to make purchases, using their M-Paisa wallet," said Karim Khoja, Chief Executive Officer, Roshan. Kam Air is also a strategic partner in Roshan's VIP program, the first of its kind in Afghanistan.

Upon payment through M-Paisa, customers will receive an SMS with a reference number, which will serve as their ticket. In April 2011, M-Paisa received Afghanistan's first Electronic Money Institute (EMI) license from the Da Afghanistan Bank.

Source: Cellular News

Cellco Digicel Haiti has launched a mobile money service in cooperation with Scotiabank under the name ‘Tcho Tcho Mobile’, allowing Haitians to carry out cash withdrawals, deposits and transfers securely through their mobile phones without the need for a traditional bank account. During its first three months, the programme will offer up to 20,000 users the ability to access Tcho Tcho’s services which include domestic money transfer to another mobile user and phone top-up purchasing. The service will eventually expand both its user capacity and its range of services.

Source: TeleGeography

Belgacom a présenté, en présence de l’ambassadeur du Maroc, son service international de transfert d’argent mobile vers le Maroc, en collaboration avec Maroc Telecom. Concrètement, ce nouveau service permet de transférer de l’argent d’un téléphone mobile en Belgique vers un téléphone mobile au Maroc. Le service est ouvert aux titulaires d’un compte PingPing, la plate-forme de paiement mobile de Belgacom. Une fois ce compte chargé, il est possible de transférer de l’argent, que ce soit par gsm ou par internet, aux clients de Maroc Telecom ayant souscrit au service MobiCash. Le destinataire voit son compte de téléphonie mobile crédité immédiatement lors de l’opération et peut retirer cet argent partout au Maroc.

Source: Belgacom

MTN Rwanda has announced the launch of its 'Mobile Money' service, targeting 100,000 subscribers in 2010, local daily The New Times reports. MTN invested USD2 million in the implementation of its new offering, which enables customers on the MTN network to carry out financial transactions using their wireless handset through the 120 agents nationwide appointed by the operator. The service also allows non-subscribers of MTN to receive money. Khaled Mikkawi, CEO at MTN Rwanda, commented: ‘We have a network reaching over 90% or the population and it is only right that we leverage this coverage for a common good product that will go a long way in the financial deepening of the Rwandan economy.’ MTN Rwanda is working with Commercial Bank of Rwanda (BCR) as the partner bank for its mobile money service.

Source: TeleGeography

Mobile banking, in Colombia, has started gaining acceptance, reports nation’s Ministry of Finance. In 2008, the country saw 2.53 million m-banking operations, of which 443,787 were used for COP 12 billion in transactions and 2.08 million to check account balances. The country’s m-banking platform is being offered by Redeban Multicolor in partnership with Gemalto. The platform enables prepaid and postpaid mobile subscribers to access their bank services.
The pioneering banks in this area are AV Villas, Bancolombia, Davivienda, BBVA and Banco BCSC Colmena.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Since the launch of mobile banking system in Colombia, the m-banking subscribers have crossed the mark of 9 million. Colombia has made an addition of 11,000 new m-banking customers per month, a report reveals. This service enables subscribers to use their mobile phones to consult their bank account balance, make money transfers and bill payments, as well as top-up prepay mobile phone accounts.

The incumbents like Comcel, Movistar and Tigo currently provide m-banking services as part of their value-added services portfolio.

The subscribers of Colombia made around 960,000 m-banking transactions, average generated by each subscriber is 8 m-banking transactions monthly.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking (GTB) division has announced that it is introducing mobile phone payments services to its clients in 80 countries across Europe, Middle East and Asia. Luup, a European-based mobile payment provider, will partner with Deutsche Bank to provide the service.

This new mobile payment service will allow the Bank’s GTB clients to offer millions of consumers an instant and secure payments and money transfer service from any mobile device with any mobile network. It is the first time a major commercial bank has offered a cross-border mobile payments service to its banking and corporate customers.

Source: Cellular News.

Orange UK and Barclaycard introduce a new mobile payment system which is claimed to be the biggest evolution in terms of payment after the introduction of plastic cards, 40 years ago.

This new system will enable the customers to make payments through their handsets at the retailers by waving their handset against a reader. The two firms intend to widen their service to ticketing, transport and rewards.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Zain Tanzania’s brand new M-Banking service Zap has signed up nearly 1,400 customers in first 10 days of the launch of the service.

Zain also reported that “hundreds” of people have also applied to register themselves as Zap agents.

Zap was launched by Zain across East Africa ten days back.

Source: Wireless Federation.

Trai has cut termination charges by 33%, this reduction will lead to lowered mobile tariffs for consumers. The regulator has slashed the termination charges on local calls to 20 paise a minute from existing 30 paise.

The new incumbents like  Datacom, Unitech, Shyam-Sistema and Loop Telecom among others were insisting on 0-10 paise per minute termination charge whereas the existing GSM operators were opposing any reduction in the charges, as they feared there revenue would be affected.

Source: Wireless Federation.