Malaysia's Celcom Orders USSD Based Mobile Money Service

Malaysian mobile network operator, Celcom has ordered a mobile money service based on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) from Sybase 365. USSD is an 'instant messaging type' phone service with quick response times. USSD is similar to SMS, but unlike SMS, USSD transactions occur only during the session and have no store-and-forward capability.

"We're excited to be the first operator in Asia Pacific to launch a USSD Mobile Financial Service offering. This will not only enhance our customer experience with services including money transfer locally and internationally, and airtime topup, but will also help us further enhance our offerings in mobile payments (utility bills etc), mobile banking and mobile commerce (purchase goods and service)," said Kevin Henry, head of business innovation, Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad. "Sybase 365's platform enables us to continuously offer avant-garde solutions for customers, further solidifying our leadership in delivering more mobile values to our customers beyond voice. We expect cross border remittance to appeal particularly to Malaysia's migrant population who seek secure, instant and cost effective ways to send money home."

Run on the mCommerce Mobiliser Platform, AirCash allows Celcom customers to use their mobile phones to transfer money to other AirCash users, remit money to foreign countries (initially to Indonesia), and topup mobile airtime for themselves and others by simply dialing *133#. Also, customers are able to add money to (Cash-IN) or withdraw money from (Cash Out) their AirCash account at any Celcom branch and selected Celcom AirCash dealers.

Celcom is Malaysia's second largest mobile network by subscriber numbers. According to figures from the Mobile World, the operator ended Q1 '0 with just under 9.2 million customers, representing a market share of around 32%.

On the web: Celcom - Mobile World - Sybase 365

Posted to the site on 16th June 2009