Airtel Ghana launches "DOTGO" SMS browsing service

Airtel Ghana, has launched a new mobile messaging innovator DOTGO, an SMS-based internet service for its four million subscribers in the country.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mr Donald Gwira, Head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs of the company, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, explained that the new DOTGO’s SMS web browser enables any mobile phone – whether a feature phone or smartphone, to be Internet-accessible without data or Wi-Fi.

It said the DOTGO’s SMS web browsing service gives mobile users, particularly in areas where Internet penetration is low, access to e-mail, news, and to websites like Wikipedia, Yahoo! and Facebook.

The statement said for many users, DOTGO is actually their first-ever access to the Internet as it allows subscribers to just send an SMS to DOTGO containing the name of the website they want to browse.

It noted that DOTGO responds with an interactive menu-based version of the website condensed and formatted for SMS.

Mr Manu Rajan, Marketing Director for Airtel Ghana, said “DOTGO’s powerful platform has democratized the Internet for subscribers, saying “yes, smartphone adoption is growing fast, but feature phones are still heavily in use.

“With DOTGO’s expertise, we have instantly increased Internet penetration in Ghana by enabling our feature-phone users to access the Internet with their existing phones.”

The statement said since all of DOTGO’s services are built using the same core DOTGO platform, launching new services introduces no further technical overhead once a carrier has launched any one of DOTGO’s solutions, like the SMS Web Browser.

It further said this would allow DOTGO carrier partners to rapidly launch new messaging services that create new value from their existing infrastructures.

It stressed that from group messaging services to social networking with rich SMS support, DOTGO’s solutions have been adopted by over fifteen tier-one operators around the world.

“Nearly two thirds of the world lack access to the Internet, and we are proud to have developed a messaging technology that can go some way towards changing this,” said DOTGO co-founder and CEO Stefan Gromoll.

“The benefit for mobile operators using DOTGO’s SMS Browsing service is that they can deliver basic internet access to every single subscriber, from urban centers to the farthest corners of a country.

“They can then go on to use the same core platform from DOTGO to deliver a range of additional revenue-generating SMS- and data-based messaging services for feature phone and smartphone users alike.” It added.

The statement said DOTGO’s messaging platform also provides mobile operators with much-needed protection against the growing revenue losses caused by Internet-based services that bypass the carrier.

It, therefore, said DOTGO’s platform would allow mobile operators to recoup these revenue losses and reclaim the relationship with the subscriber, while creating new revenue streams with innovative products that demonstrate clear value for the customer.