Starlogik, a telecommunications specialist founded by South African technologists, has secured a top award at the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
The company’s ZRO technology, which helps connect the poorest of the world’s poor to cellular communications, won the award for “best mobile innovation for emerging markets” at a ceremony in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday.
Starlogik was founded in 2011 by Ari Kahn, the technologist who was the real inventor of the concept of “please call me” in South Africa while working as a contractor for MTN, together with his partners, Terry Shatenstein and Ashley Brener.
Starlogik, now headquartered in the US, describes itself as operating in the “converged space between cellular and Internet ecosystems”.
Its ZRO technology is an advancement in cellular billing that allows people to make free calls, even if they have zero airtime.
Utilising intelligent “cloud-based switching”, it removes the need for consumers to send a “please call me” when they don’t have airtime, or to keep a minimum balance to place a “missed call” to someone they want to phone them back.
Instead, they place a call as normal, it connects and rings on the called party’s phone, and then disconnects, with no airtime required.
The called party receives a notification about the “missed call” and can then opt to return the call, obviously at their cost, removing significant friction in the prepaid market and leading to greater utilisation of network infrastructure.
Cell C
StarLogik has rolled out the technology in South Africa with Cell C. It routes Cell C subscribers who have a minimal or zero prepaid balance to a cloud-based switch that’s owned and operated by Starlogik.
“There are about two billion people in the world who are excluded from being able to communicate because they cannot afford to put credit on their phone,” Starlogik said in an interview with TechCentral last year about the Cell C deal.
Starlogik’s solution is entirely cloud based, with no changes needed to the operator’s core network. The company said it has switched 31 billion calls across its infrastructure since it launched commercial services with operator partners about three years ago.
Its focus is on emerging markets, and it has signed operator deals in Nigeria and several markets in Latin America. It described the service as a “cellular lifeline for the unconnected” – those who struggle to maintain a positive airtime balance.
Previously, consumers had to maintain a positive balance to place a “missed call”. They’d have to listen for the ring and hang up before the calling party answered. Starlogik said its solution is changing this behaviour. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media
