Title and Preamble Mobi-Balance 24/7 Anywhere, Anytime

Company name: Moto:

Mission Statement: Mobi-Balance 24/7 aims to break down all barriers

to the best usage of telecommunication technology, by making it equally and fully accessible and always available to every individual, irrespective of class, gender and location.

Idea and concept

Mobile Based Recharge system: In Bangladesh there are approximately 88 million mobile phone users, as of May 2012, which comprises of 58.5% of the population. All of these users subscribe to at least one or more of the six mobile network operators (MNO) of the country, and therefore have to refill their mobile phone balances on a regular basis. The users can either purchase refill cards or purchase airtime (commonly known as flexi-load or mobile load). In both cases, a retail outlet is required to be visited. The subscribers have to access retail outlets by physical means, therefore either visiting in person or through someone else. This requirement, in itself, is at least a burden, and at worst, a barrier. Furthermore, these outlets usually remain open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. At the most, some few retailers may remain active from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. This poses a serious problem to many users, who at times of urgency and emergency are unable to use their mobile phones. Another grave problem faced by the majority of 80% of Bangladeshis residing in rural and semi-urban areas is the accessibility of outlets. It is often the case in remote and under-developed locations that due to large distances and lack of roads and transports, physically visiting outlets to refill mobile balances becomes, in fact, an ordeal. Mobi-Balance 24/7, a mobile based recharge system, gets rid of all these difficulties and can work at any time, at any location in Bangladesh. An additional feature this system can offer is the recharging of Wireless Broadband Operator (such as Qubee, Banglalion etc) accounts. Anybody, who has a mobile or internet connection, can do it by self. It is like self service. To avail this service all that is required is an online bank account with a minimum balance. We work here as facilitators, bridging between users mobiles and their online bank accounts. When a user needs to refill, the user sends a message to a certain number following a fixed pattern, our server on receiving the message connects the mobile number to the users respective bank account, deducts the amount requested and sends the money/PIN number to the

users mobile. Users can also send their request via our official website. Hence, the service can be availed through both messaging via mobile and from online. On top of that, a user can know the updates of his/her bank account in the reply message, thus enabling the user to have better control and supervision over expenses. Users can also audit their transaction history from the website. Our business model provides a highly effective and socially impactful alternative, Grameenphone 37.3 42.4 since the poorer and rural population of the country is the most disadvantaged in the Banglalink 24.1 27.4 current system of mobile service usage. MobiRobi 17.1 19.4 Balance 24/7 would work closely with the three major mobile network operators of the Airtel 6.2 7.0 country at the beginning, as Grameenphone, Citycell 1.7 2.0 Banglalink and Robi together account for 89% of all mobile subscribers in Bangladesh. Our Teletalk 1.6 1.8 proposition to them would be accepted as an Total 88.0 100 % alternative, as not only does Mobi-Balance 24/7 have positive social and economic impacts, but also reduces costs of providing services drastically, since we are shifting from a manpower dependant system to a technologically dependant one.
Operators ( Subscribers Percentag millions ) e

Our Bank partners would be DBBL, Brac Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, which together have around 3 million account holders, and cover a large geographic scope. Even if a person does not have an account, he/she can reap the benefits of our services. Mobi-Balance 24/7 believes in creating immense positive economic and social externality. For example, even if a village in the most underdeveloped parts of Bangladesh has at least one person with a bank account, that person can provide our services to the entire village, as he/she can provide refill to any number at any time, since as our name promises, our services are available 24/7. We call such individuals Buzz Agents, and anyone can become a Buzz Agent if a certain level of transaction is exceeded. They could relay our services to those who do not have any bank account. Our Buzz Agents get discounts, and hence are economically aided. Hence, positive externality results wherever our operations take place.

Mobile services: Total No. of subscribers Annual growth Mobile penetration (population)

2010 68.6 million 31% 46%

2011 85.0 million 24% 56%

Mid - 2012 88.0 million 7.06% 58.5%

As this table indicates, the Telecommunication market growth rate in Bangladesh is very positive. As 41.5% of the population still lacks ownership of personal mobile phones, it indicates that the potential for growth is very high. Hence, Mobi-Balance 24/7 also can be considered to have a great potential to flourish.

Uniqueness and Innovation

How the system works:
Mobi-Balance 24/7 operates with a technologically innovative model, which is effective yet simple

Online & Mobile based Recharge system

Banks Services

Bank.. 1

GP

Bank.. 2

Recharge service provider

Bangla link

Bank.. n Mobile Comput er

Qu bee

The SMS format

Bank A/C No Mobile no Amount User Passwor Load/car name name/no d d Innovative and Simple Technological Application for Transaction Model: Two channels will be used for transaction Inputs are collected from messages or official website Analyzing data from input to create a pre-requisite bridge between mobile account and bank account Connected to bank using specific bank name input and A/C number, leading to completion of banking segment of transaction User name (Unique ID) specification SIM card pin number to identify and cross-check mobile number Specifying load amount Mobile balance refilled, and a confirmation and update message delivered, so that user can is provided the current status of the bank account.

Unique Business Model: Mobile based balance recharge directly from bank accounts Bridging between (i) Banks and Telecoms (ii) Banks and Wi-Fi Providers Mobile Networks will be interested because they can cut large costs as they shift from a manpower dependant to a technology based system. The concept of recharging from any location in Bangladesh, at any given time, is completely new, and is very attractive to mobile subscribers. A revenue increase for the associated banks, as our system requires transactions for every recharge we provide, and the number of recharges are very frequent. Our website will be frequently accessed. This gives us the potential to gain significant revenue from online advertisements featured on our webpage.

Overall, a very profitable business model, as the profit previously made by the numerous flexi load shops will be in turn made by our company. The rapid growth rate in number of mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh serves as a source of great growth potential for Mobi-Balance 24/7.

Economic Impact and Sustainability

Sustainability Summary: Our model requires an online transaction cascade, and therefore requires our partner banks to be those which have online services, as well as having a large number of account holders who can instantly become our customers as soon as we commence operations. In keeping with these criteria, we have decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three banks, namely DBBL, Brac Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, which together have around 3 million account holders. If we segment this 3 million into urban and rural demographics, the number of urban account holders is found to be 60,000 (20% of 3 million) (20% of Bangladesh is urbanized). We can assume that about half of these account holders live in Dhaka and, of Total number of Dhaka dwellers = 15,000. These 15,000 are our primary customers, whom we assume to take as our subscribers within the first year of operations. Assuming one individual on average uses 500 tk. per month, the amount of revenue generated from primary user accounts in the first year stand at 90 million tk. (1500050012). Now taking into account the costs, banks will have to be paid a charge for executing numerous transactions everyday. We will pay the banks 15 BDT for every 1000 BDT transactions. We count 15 BDT as a cost, as it will be used to mitigate the deficit of 1 million BDT we had incurred for system development & related costs. So, per 1000 BDT our fixed cost stands at 30 BDT. Our profit against each 1000 BDT transaction is 50 BDT, since we are replacing both dealers and retailers from the value chain. Dealers currently gain 22 BDT and retailers gain 27 BDT per 1000 BDT transaction. For marketing efforts, we shall spend 6 million BDT per year. That brings our primary resource requirements to BDT 7 million. Taking everything into account, profit per BDT 1000 recharge service stands at 10 BDT. Therefore, when fixing 20% as the average rate of return, the break-even period for our company is calculated to be 3.5 years. The financing will be done from two main sources- 1 million from an internal source and 6 million as loan. The project will achieve self-sustainability and healthy growth after the break-even period. Economic Impact:

As mentioned previously, Mobi-Balance 24/7 believes in creating positive economic and social impacts: i) ii) Reducing the monetary and opportunity cost of physically travelling to an outlet for the simple task of refilling a mobile balance. Strengthening the rural communities of Bangladesh by making facilities more accessible. With the absence of any burdens in accessing facilities such as telecommunication, significant economic empowerment of disadvantaged communities is possible. Reducing the cost of recharging, as individuals in both rural and urban areas have to pay extra amounts whenever they need to recharge small amounts, usually below 30 BDT. Increasing value and economic utility of the service, as our services will garner greater customer satisfaction; due to less chances of error (Outlets have a notorious record of sending amounts to wrong numbers). Our system is fully operated by computers, which have minimal chances of error compared to the probability of human errors. Further economic advantages gained from having Wimax internet services more accessible. The internet serves as a great source of information, thus relating to work efficiency and economic outputs. Here again, many potential customers of Wimax are lost out due to the unavailability of recharge cards in close proximity. Safety of individuals especially the female ones is ensured because of no complexity of writing down numbers in the retail outlets Empowerment of women and elderly people, who generally lack mobility due to cultural factors and physical capabilities. Such individuals will no longer face obstacles and can use mobile phones freely, thus socially and economically empowering them.

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