14 DAY TRIAL // Jinny Software announced that it is supplying a leading Southern African mobile network operator with a mobile banking solution, meant to increase the accessibility of on-line style banking to users without Internet access.
Jinny enables mobile banking services based on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), in regions where a large number of mobile subscribers have older handsets, rather than the most up-to-date 2.5G and 3G phones. USSD-enabled services can be used on any type of mobile phone, eliminating the need for high-end devices that are often expensive.
The Jinny solution is comprised of a message router and USSD technology, the latter delivering a GSM service that allows high-speed communication between subscribers and applications across a GSM network. USSD is a session-oriented service - the request and response happen as a 2-way communication - making it faster and better suited for interactive services than SMS, which is a one-way communication service. The service is similar to WAP and SMS, but it provides several benefits over both WAP and SMS, including immediate delivery, ease to use, it works while roaming and is inexpensive for subscribers to use.
"Mobile data services, such as applications that enable mobile banking, are an example of convergence and convergent messaging - an area in which Jinny specializes. Mobile devices and services are evolving to perform and deliver many of the services currently only available through the Internet. Online banking's progression to mobile banking is an example of this," said Max Wilkie, CEO of Jinny Software. "In the emerging markets of Africa, mobile banking has a very strong possibility of becoming a primary channel to banking, due to the affordability of USSD transactions over voice calls and the relatively high mobile penetration compared to low Internet accessibility experienced by much of the population."