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Airtime crosses borders with MTN

16 November 2011

Pan-African mobile operator MTN has announced a partnership with Singapore-based TransferTo, which allows MTN's customers with access to prepaid services to receive airtime transfers from TransferTo's vast international network.

TransferTo is a global airtime remittance hub that interconnects mobile operators' prepaid systems to deliver end to end cross-border top-up services.

The cross-border airtime transfer services are now available to all TransferTo sending partners and the general public abroad for the sending of airtime top-up to MTN customers in Ghana, Uganda and Yemen.

"MTN is continually pursuing value-adding partnerships to give customers a better experience of our brand," said MTN Group chief commercial officer Christian de Faria in a statement last week.

"We are particularly excited about the relationship with TransferTo because it provides our customers in all our three regions in Africa and the Middle East, with yet another option to stay connected with their loved ones.

"This partnership will soon be extended to other MTN operations."

Send airtime to friends and family

According to MTN, such methods of airtime transfer are especially useful for expatriates, who can use partner "sender" networks to send airtime to their friends and family back home, through the convenience of their mobile phone.

Those who are not subscribed to TransferTo sender partner mobile operators can still send airtime to contacts on the MTN networks by visiting www.transferto.com, for web-to-mobile transfers. TransferTo also has partners who operate tens of thousands of point of sale locations.

TransferTo is owned by Ingenico, a French-based provider of electronic payment solutions and value added services.

"We are pleased to announce that the recent signing of the global group agreement with MTN is showing results in both Africa and the Middle East," said TransferTo CEO Eric Barbier. "With the addition of Ghana, Uganda and Yemen, TransferTo now delivers services to nearly half of the MTN operations, while work continues to add the rest."

SAinfo reporter