Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, said on April 2, 2013, that it has joined hands with cell phone giant Nokia. The alliance will provide the subscribers of Airtel in Africa, access to value added services like Nokia Life and Nokia Express Browser on their mobile phones.
Nokia Life services is where the information is customised and designed for customer needs in fields like education, healthcare, agriculture, spirituality and livelihood. Airtel released a statement which said, “The potential for Nokia Life in Africa is enormous and following on the success of Nigeria, Nokia and Airtel are pleased to now extend this to the East African market, starting with Kenya”.
Andre Beyers, the Airtel Africa Chief Marketing Officer, said that the alliance contributes towards bridging the digital divide on the continent. Beyers added that partnering with the world class organizations in such a large scale will galvanise the sector in Africa and be a catalyst for growth.
The company has also announced the availability of integrated solutions for the Nokia Store in Kenya and Nigeria. Customers can download paid content from the mobile application provided by Nokia. Customers can pay for it as a part of their monthly mobile bills, or have the amount reduced from their pre-paid balance as well.
