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Johannesburg - Blue Label Telecoms and software giant Microsoft have announced a partnership to develop mobile applications and enable access to online services for regular cellphones.
Joint Blue Label CEO Mark Levy said his company has been working with Microsoft over the last 18 months to develop the next generation of mobile services for the mass market.
The solution is based on Microsoft's OneApp technology and leverages Blue Label's Mibli brand.
Microsoft said OneApp has been designed to bring online applications, such as Facebook and Twitter, to users of normal cellphones. Until now, only smartphone users have been able to access these services.
According to Levy, there are two billion standard phones in use worldwide.
The partnership announcement was made by Blue Label at its annual financial results presentation in Johannesburg for the year to end-May. It recorded a 22% revenue growth to R15.3bn, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 73% to R568m.
Registration plans in place
Headline earnings per share grew by 71% to 51.6c and core earnings per share by 22% to 55.9c.
< No dividend has been declared, but Blue Label said it intends to declare a dividend in the financial year commencing June 1 2010.The company has also launched registration systems for prepaid cellular subscribers, who - in accordance with the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Act (Rica) - have to register their details before the end of 2010.
Joint CEO Brett Levy said the company will have 9 000 Rica registration points available by November. It has 5 000 at the moment.
Levy added that the system has the potential to handle Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) registrations too, as Rica is a scaled-down version of Fica.
- Fin24.com
