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Etisalat to soft launch mobile remittance service

Wednesday, 19 May 2010 14:06

Source: Emirates Business

Etisalat is set to soft launch its much-awaited mobile money transfer service by initially limiting the usage to its employees and select media professionals in the country, a senior official of the telecom operator said yesterday.

As part of the pilot project, etisalat will test the facility through some 4,000 Indian nationals on its rolls for money transfer to India, Rashed Majed Al Abbar, Director of Etisalat Mobile Commerce, told Emirates Business.

Preparing for the soft launch, etisalat is already testing the mobile money transfer service among a few of its senior executives. The service based on USSD (unstructured supplementary service data, the technology used in SMS services) has been fine-tuned for the soft launch. "There are a few aspects to be taken care of before launching it commercially this year. There was a small beta group within etisalat testing the service and now we want to have a soft launch for all our employees," he said.

The service will enable users to send remittances to their home country via mobile wallet applications that enable customers to use their mobile phones to transfer cash to other mobile wallet accounts. To do so, a user simply uploads digital cash to their wallet account and routes it to the recipients account.

Etisalat had earlier told the media that it had roped in Citibank as a partner for the mobile money transfer service. An earlier market research by etisalat had revealed an annual remittance of $7 billion (Dh25.75bn) by expatriates in the country. The UAE ranks only third after the US and Saudi Arabia in remittances.

"The beneficiaries in the home country just have to register with any mobile wallet service and there is no need for a bank account. There is a large unbanked population that will benefit from such services," Abbar said. The mobile remittance service carry a lower fee compared to money exchanges. "We will be working with a strategic channel to register mobile numbers and with international banks in these countries," he said.

Etisalat is already conducting a pilot project with Emirates NBD on NFC (near field communications) technology to make payments via NFC phones at retail outlets.