Debugging the USSD myth : An open discussion to Developers, Telco network engineers
It's interesting what basic research into a subject does to open up your mind to ideas/facts. What I discovered is the wrong impression being created about this service. Here are a couple of pointers, corrections welcome : 1) To deal with any Telco you will need to be a licensed provider. There are 2 categories, Application or Content Service provider. 2) You need to partner and not compete with a Telco. 3) If you are serious about your social networks sites/applications and want to develop into a commercial service, Point 1 above applies. Without it, you can only live on the internet as a blog or website and it can be only that. It is a fact the Content developers like Mobile Planet, Cellulant and others are dealing with Telcos. Cellulant am sure is partnering with Safaricom on content and has USSD access. In 2008/09 it was selected a top SME performer with an annual turnover of almost 1million USD. Cellulant is registered with CCK as a VAS. ( correction needed ). I recently remember reading an article that AT&T mobile was, until recently, restricting voip services over its mobile network. There are many telcos who do not even allow instant messenger. We are so luck in kenya that we do not face such problems so why in the world would you want to develop an application that seeks to take business away from a Telco? What does it mean to upcoming and established application/web and mobile developers seeking to go commercial? As long as your approach is without any legal entity, you will find it impossible to get anywhere. But we all know these things are expensive and no one can go solo. I'd like to suggest that you come together as a community and register as a VAS /Application/Content provider company. This will create a level of trust in the market, especially if you are listed in the CCK licenses/site as a provider. You can bypass any middle persons since you develop the applications/sites yourself and I'm sure Telcos will find it very interesting to deal with you as an entity. There is no guarantee that this will work or whether a telco will even deal with you, but I see it as a logical step towards moving away from the grey and un-registered internet and into the real commercial world where you are respected as an entity of professionals that you are. I hope this helps those who are seeking to expand and get established. I'm outt here, ciao! :-)
"...I'd like to suggest that you come together as a community and register as a VAS /Application/Content provider company..." Mr. Aki, You literary read my mind there. I passed this suggestion to Simon Mbuthia (I believe he is the chairman of Mobile Monday). I don't think I mentioned it in the list. Are there any other people/companies willing to take this up? My suggestion was that we as developers register our own VAS, etc (just like u said) and we only take out a tiny percentage of revenue that will go to the day to day running of the VAS company. The VAS company is basically a shell. Each person/company will own a stake in the VAS company depending on their contribution to starting the VAS company. The bigger the stake, the less percentage that is taken from revenue to run the VAS... I believe everyone gets the idea. --- On Mon, 4/26/10, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote: From: aki <aki275@googlemail.com> Subject: [Skunkworks] Debugging the USSD myth : An open discussion to Developers, Telco network engineers To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Date: Monday, April 26, 2010, 8:21 PM It's interesting what basic research into a subject does to open up your mind to ideas/facts. What I discovered is the wrong impression being created about this service. Here are a couple of pointers, corrections welcome : 1) To deal with any Telco you will need to be a licensed provider. There are 2 categories, Application or Content Service provider. 2) You need to partner and not compete with a Telco. 3) If you are serious about your social networks sites/applications and want to develop into a commercial service, Point 1 above applies. Without it, you can only live on the internet as a blog or website and it can be only that. It is a fact the Content developers like Mobile Planet, Cellulant and others are dealing with Telcos. Cellulant am sure is partnering with Safaricom on content and has USSD access. In 2008/09 it was selected a top SME performer with an annual turnover of almost 1million USD. Cellulant is registered with CCK as a VAS. ( correction needed ). I recently remember reading an article that AT&T mobile was, until recently, restricting voip services over its mobile network. There are many telcos who do not even allow instant messenger. We are so luck in kenya that we do not face such problems so why in the world would you want to develop an application that seeks to take business away from a Telco? What does it mean to upcoming and established application/web and mobile developers seeking to go commercial? As long as your approach is without any legal entity, you will find it impossible to get anywhere. But we all know these things are expensive and no one can go solo. I'd like to suggest that you come together as a community and register as a VAS /Application/Content provider company. This will create a level of trust in the market, especially if you are listed in the CCK licenses/site as a provider. You can bypass any middle persons since you develop the applications/sites yourself and I'm sure Telcos will find it very interesting to deal with you as an entity. There is no guarantee that this will work or whether a telco will even deal with you, but I see it as a logical step towards moving away from the grey and un-registered internet and into the real commercial world where you are respected as an entity of professionals that you are. I hope this helps those who are seeking to expand and get established. I'm outt here, ciao! :-) _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
@Wes, great to see you back and its great if such a project took off. :-) I'm on a self ban not to write anymore words until July and in closing am going to list this : Safaricom ( I've named thee as The Queen Bee ) is always innovating ways to stay ahead of the market. And so are other Telcos. I personally believe mobile content and development is the future gateway into millions of devices. For kenyans this would mean a lot of things, information, access to services etc. The Queen Bee is always sending out signals into the market. Towards the end of this year, it's going to have an operational data centre. Big step. How long do you think it will continue depending on music, tones, wall papers and the rest? Queen Bee is on a mission, to become the Queen of the entire land. The Queen's Bee colony has workers that run its daily operations but is missing a vital component and thus has to deal with 3rd party whose best innovation and development is not beyond what the Queen wants. So now come in the developers with their own developer bee colony and content. She will quickly sense the value the dev bee colony bring with it, especially if the content is relevant. At the same time, Queens of other bee colonies are on the look out to take ensure they also get a share. Bottomline = they are all looking for ways to increase their presence and profits. Someone please tell me what is going to stop the growth of kenyan developers under a common commercial goal? So please stop operating in the grey market, hiding on the internet or depending on ad revenue, or even in locking yourself in the room at the back of your house. Get formal and give yourself a chance at growth and establishment. Good Luck. :-) On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 8:40 AM, wesley kirinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com>wrote:
"...I'd like to suggest that you come together as a community and register as a VAS /Application/Content provider company..."
Mr. Aki, You literary read my mind there. I passed this suggestion to Simon Mbuthia (I believe he is the chairman of Mobile Monday). I don't think I mentioned it in the list.
Are there any other people/companies willing to take this up? My suggestion was that we as developers register our own VAS, etc (just like u said) and we only take out a tiny percentage of revenue that will go to the day to day running of the VAS company. The VAS company is basically a shell. Each person/company will own a stake in the VAS company depending on their contribution to starting the VAS company. The bigger the stake, the less percentage that is taken from revenue to run the VAS... I believe everyone gets the idea.
participants (2)
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aki -
wesley kirinya