[kictanet] Idea

[Bill Kagai]

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Rad!<conradakunga at gmail.com> wrote:
> I wonder if Safaricom, Orange, Zain & Yu would consider setting up
> application portals -- something like the apple app store.

3G Telcoms (An M-Pesa Agent) and i360 Ltd did develop an online
payment gateway working seamlessly with M-Pesa.

The transaction flow process was that...say...if you wanted to order a
'stocks report' online, one would select the particular publication on
the website, then send the money to our PayBill number 100800. After
receiving the confirmation code from Safaricom of the transaction, the
next step was to enter the 8 digit alphanumeric code on the website.
Our portal would then compare the alphanumeric code and the amount of
cash sent and if it tallied, you would enter  your email address as
the 'Account Number'. The report would thus be sent to your
email....essentially automating the entire process.

The Catch....
The 'Enter Account Field' is built on the sim card and only takes up
to 16 characters. 75% of our subscribers had email addresses of more
than 16 characters and could not utilize the payment gateway because
of this. If the design of the sim card is changed to accommodate at
least 25-30 characters we would have managed to automate internet
payment via mpesa with our 'stock reports' being sent straight into
the subscribers email account.

We are still pondering if anyone has managed to circumvent this
handicap and would be very willing to learn. Otherwise, Safaricom did
take the issue into consideration and promised to look into the matter
though the solution will not be short-term since the sim card has to
be re-designed. I hope listers here could enlighten us with
alternatives of concluding an internet transaction despite this
physical limitation on the sim card.


Bill
Chairman
3G Telcoms Ltd