Redknee Solutions, a leading provider of real-time monetization and subscriber management software, announced that it is supporting Digicel, a leading global group mobile network operator, to offer prepaid electricity to residents and business owners in Papua New Guinea. Redknee's converged billing system is supporting Digicel's Easypay 'Easipawa' prepaid electricity metering service, enabling Digicel customers to purchase electricity at any time directly from their mobile phone. Working in partnership with the country's incumbent electricity utility provider, Digicel and Redknee provide an alternative solution to the existing prepaid electricity voucher top-up payment method, where rural customers had to travel long distances to vending sites that were only available during business hours.
According to Redknee, energy customers simply enter their meter number and the required amount of electricity, receive an SMS message confirmation, and the payment is deducted directly from their Digicel airtime balance. Digicel's postpaid customers can also utilize the prepaid electricity service and the purchased amount of energy is added to the monthly bill.
Digicel has been using Redknee's converged billing solution to provide its customers with prepaid and postpaid offerings for voice, messaging and data.
John Mangos, CEO, Digicel
Digicel has worked in partnership with Redknee for some years to expand our service offerings and increase our market presence. Redknee's converged billing solution is supporting Digicel to launch new data services and provide advanced customer care capabilities to enhance the experience of our customers. With Redknee, the Digicel Easypay 'Easipawa' service, which uses a combination of USSD and SMS technologies, allows Digicel customers to use any mobile phone to purchase electricity anytime, anywhere. In less than 18 months Digicel has achieved a positive ROI, and today, Easipawa is responsible for a large majority of all pre-paid electricity purchases in Papua New Guinea.
Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO, Redknee
We are pleased to support Digicel's growth strategy to deliver converged billing into the energy sector. Utilizing Redknee's converged billing solution, Digicel has the capability and agility to efficiently manage their subscribers and service revenue through a centralized platform. The utilities sector and other verticals such as health and transportation are increasingly providing avenues for communications service providers to increase customer loyalty, increase revenues and improve profitability. At Redknee, we will continue to invest in our real-time software to support service providers worldwide, and advance our position as the provider of choice for monetization and subscriber management solutions.
By MSchlauch (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
