November 25, 2001
CMG Wireless Data Solutions, the leading supplier of mobile messaging solutions, today announced the launch of its Smart SMSC at the GSM Africa conference. Already recognised world-wide for its high-end, high performance SMSCs, CMG's Smart version will cater to start-ups and smaller operators' needs for entry-level messaging solutions. The Smart solution offers full upward migration and compatibility providing operators with a comfortable and cost effective growth path. The Smart SMS solution is particularly conducive to the fast growing market of African mobile operators and equips them with the smartest means to generate SMS traffic and revenue. SMS is known to generate substantial additional revenues to operators, which can easily run up to 20% of their total revenue.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) forecasts in its African Telecommunication Indicators 2001 report released this month an explosive growth that will create three times as many mobile users than fixed-line users in Africa by 2002. According to this report, the number of mobile subscribers is expected to balloon to 98 million. The number of mobile networks in Africa has more than trebled in the past five years. In 1995 there were 33 mobile networks, now there are 100.
In 17 African countries mobile telephony has already attracted more consumers than the fixed-line networks. These include some of Africa's strongest economies: Uganda, Ivory Coast, Morocco, South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania. The introduction of pre-paid cards and independent regulatory authorities has further spurred mobile growth. Pre-paid cards promote the use of cash payment, thereby avoiding debt for low-income users and reducing the risk for operators.
Mike Chalmers, head of CMG's African office comments: "A new breed of pan-African companies is creating the mobile miracle in Africa. The ITU anticipates 98 million mobile users in Africa and only a small increase in messaging behaviour of subscribers could lead to an explosion in SMS traffic volumes." Therefore what is called for is a scalable solution that can be tailored to operators' SMS business requirements and can grow with them as their business grows. Mr Chalmers: "By launching the Smart SMSC, we now provide a complete SMS strategy catering to all operators in Africa and world-wide, from start-ups to high-flyers offering reliability, availability and low cost-of-ownership at every stage of their SMS growth."
The highest global SMS revenues are achieved over CMG platforms. Currently 7 out of 10 of the largest GSM operators use CMG messaging solutions providing operators a substantial percentage of their total revenue. Well-known operators who use the CMG messaging solution are Vodafone D2, Telefonica, TIM of Italy, Orange / France Telecom and T-Mobil. At a time when operators are experiencing declining voice ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) SMS provides additional revenue streams that can bridge the gap to 3G.
CMG currently has more than 20 African clients. CMG's main office on the African continent is situated in Johannesburg and employs around 70 people. The company's history in Africa dates back to 1993 when the first office opened under the name of Computer Answers International Limited. "CMG is committed to the African market and believes that local presence is essential to drive the development of messaging in the region", added Mr Chalmers.
CMG's SMSC CMG's Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) is the only central store and forward facility that accepts, buffers, processes and distributes up to 2,500 short messages per second in a mobile network. It is a business critical device - the heart, in fact - of any successful SMS operation. CMG Wireless Data Solutions was the first vendor in the world to deliver a High Performance Short Message Service Centre, a single platform exceeding industry standard performances by far. CMG now offers SMSC solutions for every operator who is serious about growing their messaging traffic, no matter what size. The success of CMG's SMSC (and the success of CMG's customers running profitable SMS businesses) stems from its unrivalled speed, capacity and stability under real network conditions whilst maintaining full store and forward capabilities. Along with superior performance and guaranteed Quality of Service, CMG's complete SMS strategy also covers: * Unlimited real-time prepaid billing and rating * Customer profiling and traffic analysis * Solutions for potential SS7 performance bottlenecks * Trusted, cool, plug and play premium services * Value-added partnerships * Full integration for 2.5 G and 3G networks
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