IMImobile to offer cross-network free-to-user Voice Short Codes to its UK customers
Pricing transparency expected to drive growth in new markets
London, UK, July 3rd, 2012 – IMImobile, a global mobile data technology infrastructure and solutions provider to telecom operators, media companies and enterprises, has today announced the introduction of cross-network free-to-user Voice Short Codes (VSCs). The service is the first of its kind to be made available in the UK by IMImobile, and allows consumers to benefit from a zero-rated price point.
VCSs are five digit codes that allow consumers to contact businesses, retailers, enterprises, such as financial and utility services, directly from their mobile phone via SMS, MMS and, more recently, voice. Until now, high Voice Short Code prices have discouraged inbound communication, as consumers have been reluctant to incur the heavy costs associated with these services. With a free-to-user price point available, IMImobile is removing the cost barrier allowing businesses to provide their customers with a worry-free service. Well-established and trusted short code services can now be either called or texted giving users a unified mobile experience across multiple platforms, which drive customer interaction. In turn, greater mobile interaction can lead, for example, to new revenue-generating opportunities, or help reduce customer churn and revenue leakage.
With additional lower premium price points, IMImobile’s customers will benefit from a greater level of pricing clarity. A transparent pricing strategy is vital in driving the growth of VSCs in sectors such as utilities, retail and broadcasting, where customer contact centres are prevalent.
“Customers are still facing significant call charges if they are calling non-geographical numbers, such as 0800 numbers from their mobile phone,” says Martin Bolsover, Head of Enterprise Europe, IMImobile. “The new free-to-user Voice Short Code service provides cost transparency allowing brands, marketers, enterprises and other businesses to improve the mobile customer experience and interaction.”
“IMImobile will be able to integrate the Voice Short Codes in two possible ways, either directly into existing direct dial-ins (DDIs), or into IMImobile’s interactive voice recognition (IVR) infrastructure. This not only ensures that there is minimal impact of existing services, but will also allow us to deploy individual DDIs for each of the mobile operators,” continued Bolsover.
About IMImobile
IMImobile is a global mobile data infrastructure and solutions provider to mobile operators, enterprises and media companies with over 650 employees and a presence across Asia, Europe, America and the Middle East.
The IMImobile product and service portfolio is built on a core modular service platform called the DaVinci Evolved Service Platform hosted in the cloud. The platform provides the foundation to enable a mobile marketplace and Open Mobile Market. On top of the DaVinci platform sits a suite of consumer lifecycle solutions that allow operators and enterprises to drive revenue generation, self-care, customer acquisition, customer retention and audience engagement through the mobile device.
IMImobile is working with over 100 Blue Chip companies and its services reach over 900 million people in over 60 countries. IMImobile’s operator customers include Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, France Telecom, Meteor, Millicom, Mobitel, MTN, Reliance, Tata, Telefonica, Tigo, Zain and Vodafone. IMImobile’s media and enterprise customers include BBC, Centrica, E-ON, Ford, Mahindra & Mahindra, Star TV, Reuters, Yahoo, Google, EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony and Warner Music, The AA.
For more information visit www.imimobile.com
