TELECOMS companies are introducing new technologies to boost their revenues and win customer loyalty with a series of new product announcements this week. <\/p>\n
Virgin Mobile has become the first network in SA to offer its customers protection from cellphone viruses. While mobile viruses are still in their infancy, there have been a few attacks on sophisticated smartphones that run similar software to computers. <\/p>\n
Virgin Mobile is working with Dubai-based company Lighthouse to offer Norton software that blocks bugs transmitted via e-mail, multimedia messages, downloads from memory cards or by Bluetooth or infrared connections. <\/p>\n
Virgin Mobile customers could download the software for R15 a month and were the first in Africa to have access to this software, said CEO Peter Boyd. <\/p>\n
In contrast, Vodacom has opted for a new service likely to appeal to most cellphone users, rather than the elite smartphone set. <\/p>\n
Its offering will convert voice mail into text messages, so subscribers can read their messages instead of having to dial the voicemail service. <\/p>\n
The move makes Vodacom the first operator in Africa to offer a voicemail to-text service, using technology from UK company SpinVox. SpinVox was founded by Christina Domecq when she received 14 voice mails that she could not access during a meeting. <\/p>\n
Customers would find it a simple yet immensely valuable way of improving their daily communications, Domecq said. <\/p>\n
The service works with English, French, German and Spanish messages, with no plans yet to adapt it to translate any of SA’s other languages. <\/p>\n
Last week Vodacom also launched a system to deliver advertisements to its users. While customers may not actually want adverts on their handsets, they will receive text adverts when they receive a “Please Call Me” message, and banner adverts will run on Vodacom’s internet portals when users download mobile content such as music and wallpapers. <\/p>\n
Vodacom was entering the media space under its strategy to evolve into a multimedia company, said its commercial executive director, Romeo Kumalo. <\/p>\n
The value of diversification has been highlighted by BT, the British player that now enjoys its fastest growth for “new-wave services”. Those innovative broadband, broadcasting and advertising initiatives have grown 30% in the past two years.<\/p>\n