Republic of the Congo's internet messaging access nearly doubles

A new service is bringing email and online chat to people in even the most rural parts of the Central African state of Republic of the Congo via SMS-enabled mobile phones - nearly doubling the population's access to internet messaging.

Warid Congo is transforming its 450,000+ mobile phone subscribers' handsets into virtual smartphones with its new Warid messenger service. The service, provided by ForgetMeNot Africa, enables all Warid Congo's subscribers to send and receive mobile email and online chat messages on any SMS-enabled handset without needing to be connected to the Internet.

Congo's highly literate population - UNICEF figures show that adult literacy was at 87 per cent in 2008 - struggles to access vital information such as healthcare, travel and educational resources. One reason is that only 6.6 per cent of its 3.68 million population use the Internet, according to the latest figures from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Internet connectivity in Congo is still extremely low, even in comparison to the rest of Africa. However, mobile phone subscriptions in the country are booming. ITU figures show 2.17 million Congolese people had a mobile phone subscription in 2009, compared to just 383,700 in 2004. The country now has 89 mobile phone subscriptions to every single fixed telephone line.


Michel Elame, CEO of Warid Congo, said: "Deploying ForgetMeNot Africa software is a clear sign that Warid Congo intends to be the most innovative mobile phone network in Congo. Warid messenger opens up a world of internet messaging to the highly literate Congolese people. They can now send and receive emails and have chat conversations with friends and family from all over the world anytime they like, be it from their armchair, while in the park with their friends or even while doing their shopping. This is a unique innovative offering for Congolese consumers."


Jeremy George, Chief Operating Officer for ForgetMeNot Africa, explained the launch also created the opportunity to roll out the company's technology to millions of French speaking Africans. "Our development work means that ForgetMeNot Africa technology can now serve the 115 million Francophones on the continent," he said. "The launch of Warid messenger expands our footprint across Africa, with our first venture into central Africa following previous launches in east, west and southern Africa.


"Our cloud computing approach is turning even more basic handsets into virtual messaging smartphones. We are giving millions of Africans access to internet messaging which otherwise, for both economic and technical reasons, would be unavailable to them due to a severe lack of internet connectivity and language support."

Glo Mobile service rockets Nigeria's access to mobile email and online chat

The digital divide in Nigeria, Africa's highest populated country with 150 million people, is being bridged to give Nigerians with any SMS-capable mobile phone handset access to pay-as-you-go two-way internet messaging services.


Glo Mobile, part of the award-winning Globacom, Nigeria's largest independent mobile phone network, is rolling out the new low-cost GloMessenger service to its entire 25 million subscriber base using ForgetMeNot Africa's Message Optimiser mobile technology. The service converts emails into SMS format and vice-versa, enabling users to send and receive emails and online chat messages using any standard SMS-capable mobile phone handset.


GloMessenger rockets the country's access to the Internet. ITU figures show before the launch of GloMessenger only 24 million Nigerians (16 per cent of the population) had access to the Internet.


ForgetMeNot Africa's Chief Operating Officer, Jeremy George, said: "Glo Mobile is putting another brick in the bridge across the digital divide in Nigeria, using ForgetMeNot Africa's technology to offer widespread, cheap-to-use mobile email to millions of Nigerians. Only 5 per cent of Nigerian households have a computer and the lack of cable access to the Internet makes accessing broadband difficult for the vast majority of Nigerians. Now they can keep in touch with their friends and family via email and online chat on basic handsets without any downloads."


Internet use across Africa remains low in comparison to Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific so the market potential for Message Optimiser in Africa is huge. By the end of 2008, 246 million Africans had mobile subscriptions, yet only 13 per cent (32 million) had access to the Internet due to poor quality fixed telephone lines. Mobile phones may be the only way for the vast majority of Africans to ever access the Internet.


GloMessenger is particularly attractive to young "early adopters" because it gives them a considerably cheaper and more convenient way of accessing two-way email and online chat compared to a standard Internet connection. What's more, the service incorporates popular chat services such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Windows Live and Gtalk so that users can send and receive messages, update their status and continue to chat online while on the go with no PC or internet access.


Globacom's Head of Valued Added Services, Samson Isa, said: "Deploying ForgetMeNot Africa software for millions of Nigerians is another step in Globacom becoming the biggest and best telecommunications provider in Africa. It follows our continuing investment in Nigeria's telecoms infrastructure. GloMessenger gives all Nigerian people a chance to enjoy cheap Internet services and keep in touch with their friends and family both in Nigeria and abroad through two-way email and online chat."