SMS aggregator in Pakistan

[Adnan]

aoa

sometimes I wonder why some Pakistani company did not decide to come
up with the facility of SMS aggregation for local market. Is it
because there's no scope here or SMS are too cheap to be considered an
important channel to provide VAS or it's just I am not aware of one?

/A

[Adnan Agboatwalla]

These two companies provide it.

http://www.vectracom.com/

http://www.aknmtech.com.pk/

Regards,

-Adnan

aoa

/A

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[Adnan]

Thanks but like any other Pakistani service they did not bother to
respond me.

/A

[Adnan]

Will it not be good to contact Mobile Operator directly? maybe they
are cheaper?

Does anyone have any clue about it?

/A

On Feb 11, 12:30 am, Adnan <kad...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks but like any other Pakistani service they did not bother to
> respond me.
>
> /A
>
> On Feb 7, 10:05 am, "Adnan Agboatwalla" <ad...@pixsense.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > These two companies provide it.
>
> >http://www.vectracom.com/
>
> >http://www.aknmtech.com.pk/
>
> > Regards,
>
> > -Adnan
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: telecom-gr...@googlegroups.com
>
> > [mailto:telecom-gr...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Adnan
> > Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 3:25 AM
> > To: Telecom Grid Pakistan

> > Subject:SMSaggregator in Pakistan

>
> > aoa
>
> > sometimes I wonder why some Pakistani company did not decide to come

> > up with the facility ofSMSaggregation for local market. Is it
> > because there's no scope here orSMSare too cheap to be considered an

[Adnan Agboatwalla]

You will not get the same code from each operator and it takes a long time
to get it from them. That is why it is easy to get up and running faster
with an aggregator.

Yes, cheaper to go direct, but much longer time to get the code from them.

[Muhammed Nasrullah]

If your requirements are small or if you are a small company, the answer is no.

It takes a very long time to get a relationship establish with each operator and then for their technical team to work with your technical team to agree on VPN tunnels and then on SMPP parameters. Pricing is another issue as are fees and then comes your application which needs to support low-level SMPP APIs. Some operators will not be comfortable giving you SMPP access to their SMSC so they'll insist you connect to their SDP (service delivery platform) over HTTP or XML etc. Then there's the problem of going to each operator ans asking for the same short code. Then there's the problem of dealing with 5 operators all of who are different weird idiosyncrasy. Also, each operator will take its sweet time; they'll ask questions: who are you? Do we know you? We're busy with launching product X right now, we'll get back to you in a week (the week is code for 2 months). What does your product do? Oh wait, we already have one just like this. We can't have that. We'll charge SMS to this shortcode at Rs. 10. We keep 90% revenue share. Also, a 50k per month rental fee. etc. etc. etc.

Eventually, the code of setting up connections with each operator is much much more than what you'd expect. So don't end up spending a thousand rupess to save 20.

WS
-Nash

[Tee Emm]

Nash has beautifully captured what is wrong with the cellular companies when it comes to the dreadfully slow-moving VAS wings of cellcos in our market. SMS is the Internet for the next billion poor, but connected users. One possibility here is that a) the cellular companies wake up to the opportunity and let some marketing budgets flow into enhanced, innovation-centric VAS departments within their own umbrellas or b) drastically change the way they open up their network and business with both the smaller innovators and their peers (other operators). 

-T

[Adnan]

Nash,

Thanks for a detailed answer. Yesterday I learnt lots of things about
local telecom issues after having a chat with the Sales Mgr of a local
mobile operator and he really helped me to come out of delusion.

First, contacting the operator directly is not going to give you any
benefit because it not cheap at all. Infact clickatell is cheaper than
Pakistani operators. Nash already mentioned to have a separate short
code for each mobile-OP, the other issue is the cost. The initial cost
is Rs.100,000 for setup and Rs.25k as recurring charges. They will
also be charging some additional amount per SMS(as you see on TV,RS5/
sms). It just blew my mind. I mean, why the heck is it so costly? The
other question which should come on everyone's mind that why SMS setup
is so expensive while they re providing it so cheap to end-users, the
answer was that it's just something which is done unwillingly by Mob-
ops due to competition. I asked them why mob-Ops don't suggest LBS in
Pakistan. The answer was,privacy. PTA had ordered to all mob-ops to
shutdown all LBS services because according to law, one can't reveal
someone else's location anyway. It was quite surprising that we have
privacy laws in Pakistan. I was also told that such VAS are not worthy
enough hence they can't offer any such services which don't generate
revenue.

What I think that local start-ups or tech companies are more inclined
towards US market. I don't know the reasons but it's quite weird that
Pakistani engineers and entrepreneurs are not thinking about
facilitating common users in Pakistan. I know it's quite difficult in
our society but are we more technology deprived people than residents
of African countries where mobile has become an integral part of the
life? people in Africa use mobile Internet and mobile commerce
frequently. I think there would be some reason that Google is now
focusing Africa more than Asia,EU or Americas.

/A

I think that unless entrepenuers find opportunities to discover the
right usage of SMS in Pakistan, we will not be able to have SMS based
VAS in Pakistan. Show them the money and they will be giving SMS
service at cheapest rate just like they provide 500 SMSes in Rs.3.

On Feb 19, 10:50 am, Tee Emm <tariq.must...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Nash has beautifully captured what is wrong with the cellular companies when
> it comes to the dreadfully slow-moving VAS wings of cellcos in our market.
> SMS is the Internet for the next billion poor, but connected users. One
> possibility here is that a) the cellular companies wake up to the
> opportunity and let some marketing budgets flow into enhanced,
> innovation-centric VAS departments within their own umbrellas or b)
> drastically change the way they open up their network and business with both
> the smaller innovators and their peers (other operators).
>
> -T
>

[bmug...@gmail.com]

This is a never ending debate so I will start with Iqbal's verse:

 

Andaz e bayan garchey mera shokh nahin hai
Shayad kay terey dil main uter jayye meri baat

Someone pointed out slow growth of VAS, so it is like this as an example; out of 654M cellular users of the subcontinent only 3.6 million use mobile internet. How can you promote VAS when the potential of usage beyond voice and simple text lies around zero-point, doesn't make a sound business analysis does it? So what is a good case - it is to focus on the wants and products of  651M consumers.

Secondly; what most of the operators are stuck on is branding the products to youth. There are 2 SOTs here, one thinks that branding to the youth makes the other segments follow automatically; second thinks that when each segment weighs on its own then why not hitting them directly instead of taking the two-step approach that is by first making them realize that they are also young and second once that settles into their minds, selling them the product. The time cycle issue is what the second school to thought is concerned around.

Thanks.

[Rehan Allah Wala]

Dear Adnan,

What are the features you are seeking.

Maybe www.earthsms.net can help you achive that ?

REhan

Rehan Ahmed AllahWala
President & CEO - Super Technologies Inc.

http://www.supertec.com/ - Internet Telephony Solutions

Don't Remember Me ? Visit http://www.Rehan.com

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