U Mobile’s free mobile service gets mixed response from users

Just a few days back, I had blogged about U Mobile, the Philippines based company, which claimed to offer free mobile phone service for users who are willing to view ads on their mobile phone. Now, just a few days later, some people have expressed their concern over the company’s ad policy.

The company claims to offer mobile services worth 350 Pesos (Philippines currency) every month for free, in exchange for mobile ads. However, it turns out that you need to get as many as 23 ads in a day to make use of this free service. In other words, every ad is roughly worth $0.01.

Customers have already started to compare this service with Blyk, the U.K. based company which offers free mobile service in exchange for mobile ads. However, Blyk’s customers are asked to view only up to six ads per day to be able to make use of the free service. So, customers of U Mobile feel a little disappointed to see this apparent difference between the two service providers.

However, some people also speak for U Mobile. They say that they get spam ads in their mobile phone every day which are good for nothing and the ads from U Mobile, however little they are worth, are still better than those spam ads as they tend to gain something at the end of the day.

U Mobile’s service has managed to get a mixed reaction from its user base so far, but I think we should cut them some slack. After all, the company has just introduced this new service and we should give them some time to get settled. If they do really well, advertisers might pay them more and in turn they will be able to cut down the number of ads to fund their free service. I for one will wait for sometime before taking a stand in this issue. How about you?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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A mobile based payment system soon to be launched in India

In just about a couple of months, mobile users in India will be able to use their mobile phone to pay for things, just as they use their credit card or debit card.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated in its annual policy statement that it will come up with the guidelines to formulate a payment system using mobile phones. RBI is discussing seriously with service providers, banks, and other financial institutions about this move and the guidelines are expected to be released on June 15th.

Already, mobile banking in India is gaining popularity big time with lots of big banks embracing this technology to make it easier for their customers. Prominent banks like ICICI, HDFC, and SBI offer mobile banking facility and ICICI has gone one step ahead and has started a mobile based service called mShop which allows you to shop using your mobile phone.

I think this is a great move by RBI. Mobile phone market in India is huge and a mobile based payment service makes complete sense at this stage. FYI, I had already blogged about a mobile based service in India where you can use your mobile phone as your airplane boarding pass. Things like this can really help people a lot and can make mobile phones more useful than what they are right now. Stay tuned for more updates on this issue.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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