Acision Launches Collect SMS and Prepaid SMS Reply Services

READING, England, September 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Innovative New Messaging Services Turn Lost Revenues Into Profit for Mobile Operators

Acision, a world leader in mobile data, has today announced the launch of its Collect SMS and Prepaid SMS Reply services. Shortlisted for the 2011 Mobile Messaging Awards, these groundbreaking services enable the funding of messages which would normally be undelivered due to lack of credit on the part of the sender. Collect SMS is modelled on the well known collect call procedure and enables prepaid customers to send messages even when out of credit by requesting that the receiver accept the charges for the inbound message. Prepaid SMS Reply enables customers to 'gift' a free SMS reply to contacts including friends, family or colleagues.

Today, globally, 75% of mobile users are pre-paid subscribers^[1] who typically exhaust their account credits some time before their usual recharge at the end of the month. The impact of this is that, on average, an operator can have around 10 million messages per month for which they can never guarantee the revenue - lack of credit is responsible By meeting a real and existing user need to communicate, Collect SMS and Prepaid SMS Reply offer operators the opportunity to capture additional revenue streams by facilitating the delivery of chargeable SMS traffic that would have previously been rejected due to lack of credit.  

Commenting on the solution Pierrette de Leeuw-Koumans, Product Manager at Acision stated: "The Acision Collect SMS and Prepaid SMS Reply solutions are user-friendly subscriber services that address a real need in the market. In all networks, a significant percentage of prepaid subscribers typically encounter a zero balance at some point. This entails a huge loss of potential revenue for operators as millions of messages are not delivered due to lack of credit.

"With Acision Collect SMS and Prepaid SMS Reply services, operators are able to run this lost revenue into profit, positively impacting their bottom line while improving the user experience. Specific interest comes from the Latin-American, African and Asian markets, where we expect these services to be part of operator's standard offering within the next two years. With its unparalleled experience in messaging, Acision is uniquely equipped to provide the operator with a solid business proposition with multiple business model options for increasing messaging usage and revenues."

Jorgen Nilsson, Chief Executive at Acision, concluded: "Unsuccessful message delivery is extremely frustrating for both mobile users and operators as it leads to lack of communication for the user with a zero balance and lost profits for the operator.  This innovative initiative personalises and differentiates the messaging service and enables operators to compete on factors other than price and connectivity with unique tools that make a difference to their revenue and positively impact the user experience.  Both these services can also address the needs of enterprises where companies can offer customers a way of contacting them via SMS without the customer incurring any personal charges.  This forms part of our mobile data strategy to ensure that core services such as messaging retain their relevance in the market and continue to generate revenue for the operator."

Collect SMS

When the user requests Acision's Collect SMS, an interaction with the recipient is set up. The service sends a message to the recipient to request acceptance of the charge. If the recipient responds with a "YES", the service charges the recipient and delivers the message. The service is available for both postpaid and prepaid users.  

Prepaid SMS Reply

To initiate Acision's Prepaid SMS Reply, the user sends a message to the recipient with a service-prefix added in front of the recipient number to gift the reply to the SMS. Once the credit status of the sender is validated, the service initiates an interaction with the recipient informing him about his SMS gift. The service is available for both postpaid and prepaid users.  

For more information about Acision visit http://www.acision.com

Notes to Editors

About Acision

As a world leader in mobile data, Acision powers innovation and profitable growth in mobile data services. As the pioneer of mobile messaging, Acision's real time mobile data solutions support its customers worldwide to drive new revenues with innovative services while controlling, optimizing and monetizing data traffic. For more information, visit Acision at http://www.acision.com 

1. Source: WCIS Database 2011