XL, BCA tie up for mBanking

JAKARTA (JP): Cellular network operator PT Excelcomindo Pratama has reached an agreement with Bank Central Asia (BCA) to provide mobile banking services, better known as mBanking, for their customers, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

Excel's business alliance manager for value added services Eric R. Palenewen said that the service would have a soft-launch on Sept. 21 and be commercially launched in October.

"This will also be our first foray into mobile banking and we have chosen to do that with BCA because it has the biggest customer base in the country," he said in a media conference here.

Only people with BCA bank accounts who have subscribed to Excel's phone network can benefit from the new service, he said.

They need to obtain a special subscriber identity module (SIM) toolkit to access the service, Eric said, adding that Excel would give out free SIM toolkits to the first 20,000 customers.

Excel launched a new service called Mobile Fun on Tuesday, providing subscribers with various options for its short messaging service (SMS). The options are named Love Matchmaker, m-Dating, m-Chatting, Spin the Phone and Dating Tips.

The new service costs Rp 800 (US$0.093) per SMS sent, compared to Rp 250 and Rp 300 per SMS under the standard service, Eric said.(tnt)