Telecom Italia Sparkle and Bharti Telesoft to launch roaming recharge facility

Telecom Italia Sparkle and Bharti Telesoft, who had signed an agreement in November 2008 to introduce roaming recharge services for prepaid subscribers,  have announced that they are launchuing a 'borderless recharge hub' in the second quarter of 2009.

These recharge hubs, an open platform that supports operators' third party electronic recharge and wallet platforms, will allow subscribers to electronically top-up their accounts and transfer airtime while travelling outside their home network.

''We see the opportunity to meet significant untapped demand for roaming services from the growing prepaid subscriber base," says Mao Mohapatra, CEO, Bharti Telesoft.

The two companies have also been in talks with major mobile operators in Europe, Asia and Central and South America to enable users the facility to recharge their prepaid cards in their countries.

The international airtime transfer services would help the large expatrate population around the world to support their family members at home with top-ups and transfers.

Bharti Telesoft, one of the top thre global  value-added services provider for for mobile operators in emerging markets, will set up the electronic recharge and mobile commerce facilities, linking recharge facilities provided by individual service operators to provide a seamless cross-border prepaid recharge and airtime transfer service, which will be hosted jointly by Bharti Telesoft and Telecom Italia Sparkle.

With over 70 per cent of the world's mobile subscribers using prepaid services - and over 85 per cent of mobile users in emerging markets relying on prepaid subscriptions - the prepaid segment is a key revenue driver for mobile operators globally.

A major hurdle inhibiting the use of roaming services by prepaid subscribers has been the inability to top-up their accounts whilst out of the home network. Now that the concept of electronic recharge and remote payments are widely understood and used, the path is clear to introduce roaming recharge services for prepaid subscribers.

''We see major potential for the roaming recharge and airtime transfer services to significantly enhance the satisfaction levels of prepaid roaming subscribers whilst at the same time helping our operator customers extend their service capabilities cost-effectively," said Arturo Danesi, senior VP marketing, Telecom Italia Sparkle. "This has been reinforced by our discussions with many leading operators in major markets globally, who are keen to launch services for the prepaid roaming community.''

Telecom Italia Sparkle is a global telecom player and a full service provider, offering a complete range of srvices across voice, mobile services, IP, bandwidth and managed data services for fixed-line and mobile operators, ISPs and multinational corporations. It provides support to 120 mobile operators worldwide with a distinctive portfolio of wholesale mobile services to increase their international service coverage.