International calls just got cheaper

The provider offers a full suite of services such as VoIP calls, email, instant messaging, chat rooms, text messaging, profiles and photo sharing. Basic communications services are provided free, to enable users to communicate with friends and family via chat and instant messaging. Users can also express themselves with profiles and share photos with each other.

Because the technology was purpose built for the mobile phone, it works on most handsets, even basic models, regardless of carrier. mig33 was the winner of the Silicon Valley 2007 Emerging Technologies Awards in the category of social networking.

“We've created a vibrant and active user community, where people are sharing information, from local stories within friend's networks to what's happening on other side of the world, and finding like-minded others in chat rooms and through profiles,” says co-founder and CEO Steven Goh.

“We've also established a commerce system, where users buy credits to pay for fee-charging services like cheap voice calls and SMS. With the launch of our prepaid card, users now have easy access to pay and participate in this commerce system.”

Goh says the company plans to add more communications, information and commerce tools, such as mobile content, to enable users to engage in the increasing range of services now accessible on cellphones.

Co-founder Mei Lin Ng says, “With the spread of the Internet on the phone, geographical boundaries are becoming less important, and the context of relationships and how people connect are changing."

Ng believes that mig33 will enable the first Internet experience for millions of people, particularly in developing countries; and that in South Africa, the service is helping bridge the digital divide by bringing Internet access to users who were previously out of reach.

The service provider's first partnership in South Africa with Lutiek Distributor enables the company to offer prepaid services at more than 1,000 mobile phone retail stores along with more than two million people already using the product. The prepaid calling cards are available in denominations of R10, R20, R50 and R100 from retail outlets throughout South Africa.