The Clickatell ZA Blog

The noises coming from the recent Mobile Money Summit in Barcelona bode well for the widespread adoption of mobile banking applications by financial institutions, particularly in poorer, less developed countries where formal banking infrastructure is limited.

The race is on for more and more innovative ways of using SMS messaging applications as more services are mobile-enabled.

Two years ago Vodafone launched South Africa’s first location-based social network – The Grid – and this year they have taken their mobile application to a whole new level.

With less than 350 days until kick-off in the first of the 64 matches to be played in the South African 2010 Soccer World Cup, the tension is rising as the availability of tickets decreases.

SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) Education in partnership with Mobidic and the Gauteng Economic Development Agency have launched an exciting SMS text messaging application project.

In one of the most innovative adaptations of SMS text messaging to date, Mayor Helen Zille and the City of Cape Town have launched a SMS service allowing residents to text their complaints on water-related issues directly to the city’s call centre.

In the wake of the 2009 South African elections, we have to wonder what happened to the Independent Democrat’s Digital Democracy Forum. SMS text messaging has been used to great effect in these elections to raise awareness and funds for a host of political parties.

‘Crowdsourcing’ is just one of many, many buzzwords doing the rounds at the moment.

Africa is considered an emerging telecommunications market as statistically few people have fixed line telephone and internet access. Cellphone access, however, is something else – in South Africa, there is almost 100% cellphone penetration.

As election fever in South Africa heats up and political parties go all out – singing and dancing in some cases – to win the hearts and minds of voters, the newly formed Congress of the People (COPE) is making it easy for South Africans to vote with their wallets through the use of SMS text messages.