Airtel Money – The Game Changer

It’s a known truth that telecom companies have to look for other domains to survive in the industry because of the competition from their own group and other technological changes. India’s leading telecom provider has entered into a new domain through Airtel Money.

The Concept

The concept is very simple. A customer wants to send 100 bucks to his relatives.

•  He runs to the nearest Airtel merchant (small shop who helps you to recharge the phone) and gives him the money and asks to transfer to another mobile number.
  
• Recipient receives the message about the transfer (deposit) and collects the money from nearest merchant showing the message.
  
• Also customer can deposit some amount in advance which can be transferred later

People like us, who use ATMs, Net banking, VISA cards may not feel anything astonishing about it. But this makes sense for lower middle class people.

Is this a new concept?? Yes in India, but not in World.

Let me tell you an incident happened with my friend. He visits Kenya for a business tour, buys a Coca-Cola from a small shop and gives 2 $. The shop owner, an old lady doesn’t have change, points a mobile number written in the shop and asks him to transfer. WOW!! An under-developed country like Kenya does not have luxury of ATMs and numbers of branches of BANK are also limited. So, Mobile money transfer is part of their life. 

Implementation

This is a big process – similar to opening lakhs of branches of bank across streets of India and needs time. Airtel have tie-up with over 60 brands and merchants in the North Eastern states. Also Subway, Baskin Robins and Curry Pot have started accepting payments via Airtel Money in those areas.

Also Airtel has chosen reliable Infosys as technology partner in the service. Infosys will deploy its mobile commerce platform “Infosys Walletedge” to enable the service support. After implementation, below services will be available for the customers. Also Bharati has over a million phone stores , which may be larger than the ATM/Branch network

• Pay bills
  
•  Recharge accounts
  
• Shop at over 7,000 merchant outlets
  
• Transact online through multiple channels (mobile phones, IVR, ATMs and points of sale

Conclusion

Airtel Money – a game changer- has opened a new market – small scale banking. Soon, expect other operators to start their version of e-WALLET.