Originally the public square of ancient Roman cities used as assembly places for judicial and public business, the Internet now enables people to participate in virtual forums without leaving home.
A selection of virtual forums launched recently by Mira Networks now enables players in South Africa`s mobile industry to exchange ideas, seek advice and discuss trends on www.mira.co.za.
Mira Networks is an aggregator WASP (wireless application service provider) offering other WASPs and corporate clients connectivity to all three SA cellular networks across a range of bearer technologies including SMS and MMS.
"Originally intended as a meeting place for clients interested in communicating with Mira`s developers and management, we hope the forums will develop into a much wider community for people interested in all aspects of mobile," said Sean Cond'e, CEO of Mira Networks.
Dedicated forums on www.mira.co.za currently include the "Premium and Bulk SMS" forum devoted to SMS competitions, mobile marketing, CRM strategies, concepts, tools and assistance and the "Mobile developer`s forum" devoted to technical discussions aimed at application developers wishing to integrate with Mira as their WASP.
In addition, the "Ideas" forum is the place where some of the more off-the-wall concepts are given expression.
"Almost every cellular user has had an idea related to cellular at some point over the past decade that we thought was going to make us rich. The Mira Mobile Forums allow bright sparks to bounce their ideas off knowledgeable people who would be able to inform them that many other people have indeed previously thought of the idea of buying Lotto tickets using one`s cellphone and it`s a dud idea because of regulatory issues," said Cond'e.
Some of the questions posed in the forums include a request for an explanation of OBS billing and how this differs from premium MO billing. The answer provided by a forum member was that OBS billing is generally a mobile debit order and consumers need to subscribe to a particular service and agree that a certain amount can be deducted once a month from his cellphone account for services rendered. Premium billing is a once-off amount deducted from the consumer`s cellphone account at a set premium-rated value.
Other questions have been related to Mira`s smart bulk messaging applications now available as white-labelled desktop applications. White labelling refers to a service or application branded in the name of an organisation and provided anonymously for the clients of that organisation by a third party.
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