Midcom, a distributor of Nokia handsets in East Africa, has partnered with Celtel Uganda to distribute airtime through an electronic medium that it hopes to eventually introduce to other mobile providers.
Midcom will operate the electronic voucher-dispensing system on a trial basis for Celtel over the next three months, after which it will open the service up to other providers.
The voucher-dispensing machine is a Verifone VX 610, which works on a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). The US$3 million investment is an initiative of Midcom Eazy, a subunit of Midcom.
The technology is aimed at easing distribution by replacing the scratch cards that are currently used to reveal airtime access numbers, explained Deepak Kataria, chief executive of Midcom Eazy.
“As the name suggests, Midcom Eazy is here to make life easy and life scratch-free,” Kataria said.
“All a dealer will have to do is make a call to us and place their order, and we will credit their accounts with the amount of airtime they need without them having to move from their location, as is the case now,” he added.
Midcom Eazy is a payment portal that can transfer airtime, cash, bill payments, etc., Kataria said. For now, however, the company will restrict itself to distributing phone airtime.
