Can anybody help with this problem?

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LottaFun

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Clients must send my company an instruction via sms. The cost for the instruction is R3.00 that I must recover from the client for the processing of the instruction. I have investigated the WASP option but they tell me that if a WASP has to process the sms and forward it to me + the cell network has to recover the R3.00 from the client, then that sms will cost the client close to R6.00. The client is not getting any content from me. He is just sending me an instruction via sms.

How is it possible that a normal sms cost 80c but when you work through a wasp, it becomes over R6.00 and how can the recovery of the R3.00 grow to R6.00 just because the cell network have to recover the fee? How can the costs differ so much from a normal sms? It just does not make sense.

So, anybody, please, if you have an alternative way/process, let me know.:confused:
 
Are these intrsutctions created by software or is it sent by a human?
 
AFAIK the networks charge a 50c bearer fee to the WASP aside from their fixed costs etc. Sounds like you're being ripped off.
 
You are right, but surely their must be a cheaper way for the client to send a sms.
 
I don't know much about it but you could always become your own WASP, probably only works out cheaper at relatively high volumes though.
 
LottaFun said:
Clients must send my company an instruction via sms. The cost for the instruction is R3.00 that I must recover from the client for the processing of the instruction. I have investigated the WASP option but they tell me that if a WASP has to process the sms and forward it to me + the cell network has to recover the R3.00 from the client, then that sms will cost the client close to R6.00. The client is not getting any content from me. He is just sending me an instruction via sms.

How is it possible that a normal sms cost 80c but when you work through a wasp, it becomes over R6.00 and how can the recovery of the R3.00 grow to R6.00 just because the cell network have to recover the fee? How can the costs differ so much from a normal sms? It just does not make sense.

So, anybody, please, if you have an alternative way/process, let me know.:confused:
Click to expand...

Who put the R3 cost / instruction on the client? Sounds like your company is charging this fee?

Any person can send an SMS at whatever price they normally pay, typically between 20 and 60c. You could just use this and bill your clients the R3 directly.

If you want to charge more than the normal rate, i.e. you want to use SMS's to make money and want the service provider to recover it for you, the WASP model is the only model I know of, unless you put your own billing system in place.

So the WASP price will be the money you're trying to recover + plus their costs (doing the accounting, billing, recovery, payments, etc.) on doing this for you. It's a pretty standard service provider model.
 
The premium rated sms calc goes something like this:
The bearer portion + 28% of remainder of the premium rate goes to the network. The rest goes to the Wasp, who is free to pass this on to a client.
So if the consumer is charged R6 for a must-have widget.
The network pockets 50c + 28% of R5.50 = R2.04
The wasp gets R6.00 - R2.04 = R3.96

There are slight variations and volume based incentives and the like, but this is the jist, bottom line, the higher the premium rate, the more revenue available.

The Wasp model is hugely competitive in South Africa, which means that to play in this space, Wasps have to pass on 90% of the revenue to gain any sort of marketshare.

You have other options for billing clients via the Wasp-model.
1) There is Vodacom's OBS (Online Billing Services), MTN's is called EBB (Electronic Billing something or other), don't think CellC offer this. This is used to run all those subscription services you see advertised all over the place. A billing ticket is passed to the subscribers account if he is on contract, if he is on prepaid it comes of his airtime. The revenue share available is a bit better here, I believe 85% on contract, 75% on prepaid, or thereabouts.

2) Premium rated USSD these are services of the form *xxx*xxx# (like look4it on *120*555, iol news on *120*iol#), revenue share also slightly better than SMS. Session based, so you can offer interactive content.

3) Premium rated MMS, not there yet, but rumour has it, it's coming

All these channels suffer from the same drawback, the portion retained by the network is too large to allow for effective use as a payment channel. This is not just greed on the part of the networks, it costs big bucks to provide the infrastructure. Also, the network has to pass on a portion of the revenue they collect as "ongoing revenue" to the service provider who connected the sim.
 
KaasP said:
The premium rated sms calc goes something like this:
The bearer portion + 28% of remainder of the premium rate goes to the network. The rest goes to the Wasp, who is free to pass this on to a client.
So if the consumer is charged R6 for a must-have widget.
The network pockets 50c + 28% of R5.50 = R2.04
The wasp gets R6.00 - R2.04 = R3.96

There are slight variations and volume based incentives and the like, but this is the jist, bottom line, the higher the premium rate, the more revenue available.

The Wasp model is hugely competitive in South Africa, which means that to play in this space, Wasps have to pass on 90% of the revenue to gain any sort of marketshare.

You have other options for billing clients via the Wasp-model.
1) There is Vodacom's OBS (Online Billing Services), MTN's is called EBB (Electronic Billing something or other), don't think CellC offer this. This is used to run all those subscription services you see advertised all over the place. A billing ticket is passed to the subscribers account if he is on contract, if he is on prepaid it comes of his airtime. The revenue share available is a bit better here, I believe 85% on contract, 75% on prepaid, or thereabouts.

2) Premium rated USSD these are services of the form *xxx*xxx# (like look4it on *120*555, iol news on *120*iol#), revenue share also slightly better than SMS. Session based, so you can offer interactive content.

3) Premium rated MMS, not there yet, but rumour has it, it's coming

All these channels suffer from the same drawback, the portion retained by the network is too large to allow for effective use as a payment channel. This is not just greed on the part of the networks, it costs big bucks to provide the infrastructure. Also, the network has to pass on a portion of the revenue they collect as "ongoing revenue" to the service provider who connected the sim.
Click to expand...

Thanks, great info.

The other way to achieve this is to bill your own clients directly, but most companies are just not geared to do this, especially for a small amount like R3.
 
The whole Wasp thing sounds like an overkill and would make sense for people that want to sell content. I do not want to sell anything, so the OBS option mentioned above sounds a lot better. Is their a way that a client can send me a sms to a specific number and then using the OBS method recover the cost from the client, without a wasp being involved?
 
If a normal cell user sends a sms, the cell company bills the user a standard tariff for the sms. Why can't they just adjust that cost to include the R3.00 that they must pay over to me? The infrastructure stays the same, the cell account stays the same, heng even the paper that they print the bill on, stays the same and it does not matter if you bill the client 60c or
R60.00. It is still just one entry on the cell users account and it is still the same envelope that must be mailed to the cell user . Why must it be so complicated?
 
LottaFun said:
The whole Wasp thing sounds like an overkill and would make sense for people that want to sell content. I do not want to sell anything, so the OBS option mentioned above sounds a lot better. Is their a way that a client can send me a sms to a specific number and then using the OBS method recover the cost from the client, without a wasp being involved?
Click to expand...

If you're not selling anything why are you collecting money from a client?
Maybe its not a ringtone or a logo, but a "service" you're selling.
You'd need a Wasp to process the OBS instruction on your behalf.
If you want to avoid dealing with Wasps, you could become one yourself.
 
I have done some homework regarding becomming a wasp. It is not practical in my case. I am not trying to avoid them, I just do not want to overcharge the client for a very simple sms instruction.
 
Yo guys, here is a business oppertunity.

A service that will collect money from cell users (the guy that send the sms), for cell users that give service via cell phones. Any takers?
 
LottaFun said:
Yo guys, here is a business oppertunity.

A service that will collect money from cell users (the guy that send the sms), for cell users that give service via cell phones. Any takers?
Click to expand...

Already being done, called a WASP! :)

I think some WASPs might onsell the service to people who needs a smaller solution, maybe worth your while to check it out.
 
No man. A wasp is a content seller. No content involved here!
Vodacom3g, give me a special price for billing and then collecting the funds on my behalf! Act like you are half a wasp!
 
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