Starfish Mobile International launches in Malawi

Starfish Mobile International, an African Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP), has partnered with Telekom Network Malawi (TNM), an African mobile network provider, in launching and strategically driving TNM's Mobile Content business and services in Malawi.
The initial launch services will allow TNM subscribers to access a range of mobile content services ranging from basic SMS services including, but not limited to, General News, Exchange Rates, Sports updates, Love Messages, Religious Messages and Horoscopes to the popular Ring Back Tone (RBT) Music Service.

The launch is part of Starfish Mobile's long term strategy with TNM in building an exciting, innovative and profitable VAS business for TNM in Malawi and in bringing content services to a vast number of their mobile subscribers, many of which have never been exposed to these sorts of mobile services before. The country's estimated mobile penetration stands at over 1, 5 million mobile users.

“We are very excited with our strategic partnership with TNM and in the potential of the Malawian VAS market going forward,” says Per Ostberg, Starfish Mobile Country Manager for Malawi.

Part of Starfish Mobile's success over the past 6 years in creating and building very successful and profitable VAS businesses for Mobile Operators in Africa has always been a very strong focus on localised content and Malawi is no exception. “We have already signed over 15 Malawian music artist as part of creating a very strong local music presence and catalogue for TNM. This is just the start of what we have planned in creating a very dynamic localised mobile music business in Malawi. We should also mention that Starfish Mobile has an agreement with COSOMA in Malawi for the collection of Mechanical Music Royalties,” says Jason Williams, Starfish Mobile Content Manager for Malawi.

Starfish Mobile is also looking at launching some very innovative and exciting Mobile Marketing campaigns with TNM in the near future based on some very successful promotions we have run in other countries over the past 12 months. This all forms part of a structured roll-out strategy for TNM going forward and is based on what Starfish has successfully implemented for other Mobile Operators in Africa over the past six years.

Starfish Mobile International is now one of the biggest Mobile Strategy, Content and Media companies on the African continent and is currently operating in 17 countries and is connected to 23 Mobile Operators.