Bytes

Barclays launches Hello Money

Barclays has launched Hello Money, allowing customers to access banking
services anytime and anywhere on their mobile phones.

Barclays customers can now perform account enquiries and financial
transactions by simply dialling *598*1#. They can carry out secure banking
transactions like fund transfers, bill payments, requests and other banking
services without visiting a branch or ATM. Upon dialling *598*1#, customers will
be guided to the mobile-based menu where they will be able to choose from a
number of options and, after they enter the correct Hello Money PIN, they can
immediately perform their required transaction on their handsets.

Barclays Hello Money operates on USSD (unstructured supplementary service
data). The service is available on all GSM handsets on the network of Airtel,
Vodafone and Idea in 40 cities across the country for a nominal monthly cost of
Rs 30. Customers can currently choose between Hindi and English, but Barclays
aims to include more languages and extend it to CDMA handsets too.

Ahmed Khizer Khan, CEO, Emerging Markets, Barclays GRCB added: Mobile
banking is proving to be a groundbreaking initiative which has already started
to show great results. Easy access to banking has positive transformational
effects as it opens up the financial system to formerly excluded segments of the
population. This is the kind of change we aim to create in all emerging markets
where financial inclusion is at the heart of our business strategy.

Mobile TV Services to be $360 mn by 2008

As per Springboard Research, the Indian mobile TV services is estimated to
touch $360 mn in 2008. As per the report, Mobile TV in India: Understanding the
Mobile Entertainment Needs of Indian Users, in the first year of operation,
mobile TV could reach a penetration level of 5 to 6% of the total mobile
subscriber base in India. It predicts 12 mn subscribers to use the mobile TV
service in the first year of launch.

As per the report, 84% of mobile phone users are interested in using mobile
TV service, provided that the service is commonly available and affordable.
Close to 60% of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV
at home. News, sports, music videos, and game shows were the four dominant types
of content that the surveyed users will prefer watching on mobile TV. These
findings are based on a survey conducted among 1,215 mobile users in six major
Indian cities by Springboard Research.

According to Ravi Shekhar Pandey, manager, Syndicated Research at Springboard
Research, A majority of mobile users in India are interested in trying out
mobile TV and would invest in new handsets for using the service. This
willingness is definitely a positive sign for those considering offering mobile
TV in one of the worlds largest and fastest growing mobile services market.

Mobile telephone operators will have an advantage over standalone mobile TV
operators in that the former already have users subscribing to their value-added
services.