txtNation, Ready for the African adventure?

Premium SMS Nigeria....

EVERY industry report says the same thing: the real growth in mobile belongs to the developing world. And where is this promised land? It’s in the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. But what of Africa, the last great unexplored continent (unless you include Antarctica)?

Well, Africa is often unfairly overlooked. For example, speak to any publisher with a global remit and they will tell you about the extraordinarily progressive outlook of Vodacom in South Africa.

But South Africa has always been something of an exception – the industrial powerhouse of the continent. How interesting, and encouraging, then to hear that there’s plenty going on in the heart of Africa – in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and elsewhere.

The progress of the sub-Saharan content revolution was made clear when one of it’s biggest provider, announced it would bring mobile English Premier League football highlights to Africa (excluding South Africa) for the first time. The offering will provide near-live coverage of all the 380 Premiership matches in the forthcoming season, individual match and weekend ‘round-up’ highlight packages, as well as SMS competitions and other types of content.

Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base hit 30 million in 2006, up from 18.6 million at the end of 2005. The country contributed around 24 per cent of the African continent’s subscriber growth last year and is easily the biggest territory after South Africa. Michael Whelan, Director of txtNation says: “Nigeria is a huge country and that 30 per cent of its subscribers have multimedia-enabled handsets. That’s a decent base to work from.”

Predictably in a developing market, the majority of content sales are of SMS-based content such as jokes, daily horoscopes, celebrity gossip, and so on.

“We’ve been in business since 2003 and we’ve seen a lot of progress made in mobile content. But there’s still a long way to go in terms of making consumers aware of what’s out there and how to get it.”

07/03/2008 - By Charlotte Tuckett

West African texting it in: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones

In Sierra Leon's today, 500 election observers at polling stations around the country are reporting on any irregularities via SMS with their mobile phones. Independent monitoring of elections via cell phone is growing around the world, spearheaded by a few innovative NGOs.

The story starts in Montenegro, a small country in the former Yugoslavia. On May 21, 2006 the country saw the first instance of volunteer monitors using SMS, also known as text messaging, as their main election reporting tool. A Montenegrin NGO, the CDT with technical assistance from the NDI in the United States, was the first organization in the world to use text messaging to meet all election day reporting requirements.

Since then, mobile phones have been deployed in six elections in countries around the world, with volunteers systematically using text messaging in election monitoring. Pioneered by NDI, SMS monitoring is becoming a highly sophisticated rapid reporting tool used not just in a referendum election like in Montenegro, but in parliamentary elections with a plethora of candidates and parties and complex data reported via SMS. This was the case in Bahrain, a small country in the Middle East, where monitors reported individual election tallies in a series of five to fourty concurrent SMS messages, using a sophisticated cosding system, with near accuracy.

Today's election in Sierra Leone is lead by the National Election Watch (NEW), a coalition of over 200 NGOs in the country. Assisted by NDI, NEW has monitors at 500 of the 6171 polling stations. Monitors report on whether there are any irregularities via SMS back to headquarters. This election is particularly significant for the country: It is the first presidential election since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew two years ago. It considered a historic poll that many hope will show that the country can transfer power peacefully after a long civil war and military coups. In the run-up to the election there was sporadic violence in Freetown; making the independent monitoring by NGOs particularly relevant and necessary.

Election monitoring is a highly technical discipline, with a sophisticated set of methodologies and extensive volunteer training. Preparation for an election monitoring exercise involves volunteer training and advance planning that often starts months before an election. Election monitors, typically led by domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often with the help of foreign technical assistance providers like NDI, can report on multiple dimensions. They may, depending on the election, report on quantitative data such as real-time voter turnout and even on actual election results. In those cases, monitors use the data to provide a "quick count" projection of the election results. If a "quick count" is conducted then a statistical random sample of polling places is carefully selected to ensure the validity of projections.

Monitors also report on qualitative data about how well the election is executed. This may include information on whether polls are opening on time, whether there are enough ballots available, whether there is free access to polling places, and whether there is any evidence of intimidation or any other irregularities.

Reports are transmitted using an agreed-upon set of codes from a representative sample of polling places around the country. In Sierra Leone, for example, there are monitors stationed at 500 polling places in every part of the country who text in reports at regular intervals.

In many contested elections, especially in emerging democracies, speed of reporting is of the essence. It is critical that NGOs and independent civil society organizations report data accurately and quickly even before official results are released, especially when fraud is feared. Mobile phones have been an important tool in this regard. They are, of course, not a new phenomenon in election monitoring; after all, cell phones have been around for a while now. But prior to NDI showcasing that SMS is a viable and reliable communication medium in elections, mobile phones were used merely to transmit reports verbally that then still had to be transcribed in a time-consuming and error-prone manual process.

Chris Spence, Director of Technology at NDI recalls: "In 2003, we had 24/7 shifts of college students in five locations across Nigeria entering data from paper forms that were faxed or hand-carried into the data centers. Timeliness and quality control were huge issues when nearly 15,000 forms containing dozens of responses each had to be manually entered into a database. Today, in the elections where we've used SMS, you watch the data flow into the database directly when it is time for the monitors to report. The system automatically sends confirmation messages back to the observer in an interactive exchange of SMS messages, so accuracy increases. At reporting time, it is quite amazing to see the numbers change on the screen as the sms messages pour into the database."

In addition to increased speed and greater accuracy of reporting, SMS election monitoring has a noteworthy ancillary benefit: the real-time ability by headquarters to communicate with observers throughout the election day by sending text reminders and updates keeps volunteers motivated and engaged. SMS and phone contact also provides vital opportunities for security updates should political conditions take a turn for the worst. As a result, morale amongst the volunteers soars there is far less polling station abandonment.

In order for large-scale SMS election monitoring to succeed, a number of conditions have to be in place. When NDI assisted an Albanian consortium of NGOs in the local elections there in 2006, all the right elements were present: NDI was working with an experienced and reliable local NGO partner; SMS bulk messaging was available for all of the mobile phone companies; the phone companies worked with the NGOs and were available and ready during election day to deal with any problems on the spot; phone companies and the bulk SMS vendors were able to handle thousands of messages per minute to a few numbers at reporting times, wireless coverage even in rural areas was excellent, and the phone companies provided so-called interconnect ability that allowed monitors to send messages from all of the different carriers to one reporting number.

In Sierra Leone where most of the carriers lack international gateway interconnect ability, the NGO coalition there will need to set up a series of local phone numbers so that observers can text to a number within their own provider network. This necessitates a much more rudimentary and complicated setup: Seven phones are tethered to a laptop and observers are texting directly to those phones without any bulk messaging intermediary. Messages arrive in the phone and are passed to computer, the software reads it using custom scripts, and the data is compiled in an Access database ready for analysis. Concerns about the phones handling a high volume of messages in this situation necessitates a more complicated reporting strategy whereby each observer will report all of data in a single text message using a simple coding scheme. Because Sierra Leone has more spotty wireless coverage, election monitors in rural areas will have to travel to areas where there is coverage to send in their reports at the end of the day.

An important consideration is the cost of a wide-scale program. To date NDI has found this method of reporting much more economical than other strategies. Pricing for bulk sms from a provider like Clickatel is relatively inexpensive. In the Albanian election, for example, the bulk messaging costs for a total of some 41,000 messages received and sent from 2100 monitors was $2400 US Dollars -- an extremely inexpensive way to receive such massive amounts of data.

NDI uses a software called SMS Reception Center, built by a developer in Russia and costing all of $69 USD. NDI tweaked the scripts over time, and paid the developer to improve the product for its purposes and specific local conditions.

In addition to the technical issues and costs inherent in running a large-scale operation, Spence notes a number of strategic issues to consider: The NGO partner on the ground needs to be experienced in electoral monitoring, the information collected needs to be suitable for the limited text messaging format of 160 chracters, and text messaging needs to be commonly used and part of the local culture. Notes Spence: "In all the countries we have worked, one thing we do not have to do is train anyone how to text."

In Nigeria earlier this year, a local NGO, ran a small-scale citizen monitoring program that used untrained citizen reporters to send in SMS messages to one number. The NGO compiled and aggregated the incoming messages and issued a report after the election. Using a grassroots software tool, Frontline SMS, organizers reported that about 8,000 individuals texted in some kind of report. This is a very different method from the systematic election monitoring conducted by NGO observer organizations and their technical assistant providers where a more rigorous protocol is adhered to. There is merit in engaging every-day citizens to protect their country's elections even if these efforts do not produce reliable and verifiable election results and reports in the manner that systematic election monitoring does. The Nigerian effort was widely covered BBC and other outlets.

In the two years since the first large-scale SMS monitoring in Montenegro, there have been rapid improvements in mobile services as competition in the wireless industry has increased worldwide, and there is growing interest and understanding on the part of NGOs that systematic election monitoring is not as difficult as it first may seem. As election monitoring via SMS becomes standardized and NGOs gain experience, there is no reason for mobile phones and SMS not to play a greater role in other areas of civic participation. For example, imagine citizen oversight of public works projects where people might report on whether a clinic is actually built as indicated in a local budget. Other applications may be monitoring and accountability of elected officials, and dissemination of voter registration information such as the address of where to register, or the nearest polling station. Several pilot projects in the United States showed promising results in increasing voter turnout by text message reminders. The future is bright for innovative ways in which cell phones are used by citizens to participate and engage in their countries as the mobile revolution unfolds.

Find out more at mBILL: www.m-bill.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

PSMS Nigeria - txtNation partners with Celtel

txtNation has become endorsed by one of the largest networks in Nigeria, to become a WASP (Wireless Application Service Provider).

Under the agreement, txtNation will deploy its latest solutions solutions and provide comprehensive services. The expansion will enable Celtel to increase its subscriber capacity, extend its coverage into new areas and improve the quality of its clients offerings.

This is a first time contract for txtNation with Celtel.

Director, Michael Whelan ”This deal will enable us to become more of and just a name and a brand in this part of the word. With our proven success in this region, the whole of West Africa is next on our list of expansion plans. We are excited to be working with Celtel Nigeria and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the operator.

Deploying txtNation’s technology and our expert services solutions for this network expansion will enable Celtel to add on new subscribers easily and efficiently, and ensure that the company continues to provide its growing number of customers with high quality services.”

Leading Premium SMS Nigeria

txtNation provides more direct connections to mobile operators in Nigeria (for Premium SMS Nigeria) than any other provider in the market today, enabling you to reach 100% of U.S. mobile subscribers. We support short codes, premium billing, text, and binary/content programs, including but not limited to, ringtone downloads, games, chat, subscriptions, and interactive TV campaigns. Our mBILL platform provides binds for SMS, MMS, WAP billing, and proprietary authorisation capabilities that help increase transaction success rates and maximize your revenue.

Our established relationships with mobile operators and extensive knowledge of their billing systems provide seamless integration, faster program approval and accelerated time-to-market for your mobile commerce business.

Find out more at mBILL: www.m-bill.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

More TV shows go live

Powering Big Brother, Play TV and Pop Idol we have no secured a further two contracts for live Interactive TV stations. More details on these two shows will be published shortly.

This follows the news of a Nigerian office only weeks away from being opened for business.

Direct connection into Glo.

Glo is now part of our Nigerian coverage going live the same day as Celtel. Premium Price points ranging from 5 to 500 Naira. This is part of our extensive Nigerian coverage for direct connections.

In its first year of operation, Glo Mobile became the fastest growing GSM network in Africa, achieving a record one million subscribers and covering over 87 towns in just nine months. The subscriber figure at the moment stands at over 9 million with coverage extending to over 40,000 cities, towns, communities and major roads, thus making the company the second largest operator in Nigeria. The network will soon extend its frontiers to the West African sub-region as it is concluding negotiations with two neighbouring countries.

Connection to Celtel

We can offer price point on Premium SMS across Celtel from 5 to 500 Naira. Premium and Non-Premium service(s).

Celtel made history on August 5, 2001 by becoming the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in Nigeria. In May, 2006 Celtel acquired a majority stake in the company and re-branded the company to Celtel in September. Celtel in Nigeria is now an important part of Celtel’s pan-African operations spanning 14 countries and serving more than 15 million customers.