Comviva and Starfish Mobile Ink African Deal

Comviva has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Starfish Mobile to increase its ringback tone (RBT) portfolio available to its mobile operator customers in Africa, writes Andy Penfold.

Starfish Mobile is one of the leading content aggregators and mobile marketing agencies in Africa. Comviva says the deal will allow mobile operators in the region to increase user numbers and achieve sustainable usage of their services.

“Music is one application that has proved a major success with subscribers globally, with subscribers embracing various music-based services such as ringback tones,” says Comviva CEO, Manoranjan Mohapatra. “Partnering with Starfish Mobile, together with our proven expertise in deploying and managing music services for operators across multiple growth markets, will further drive the success of ring back tone services in Africa.”

Per Ostberg, Starfish Mobile International chairman says that the company sees a great opportunity for ringback tone services in Africa. “At Starfish Mobile, we have developed a content strategy that allows mobile operators to drive the quantity of users on their networks and to achieve sustainable usage of their latest high tech products,” says Ostberg. “Our partnership with Comviva will further add value to operators’ RBT services and extend their appeal to a broader subscriber base, as well as expanding our reach in Africa and thus increasing our local and international content partners’ exposure to a variety of markets.”

Comviva’s RBT solutions are currently deployed by over 20 mobile operators worldwide.