XL, BCA tie up for mBanking

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)