Celltick, a company which specialises in the uses of cell broadcast applications, is providing its LiveScreen technology to VimpelCom, which has launched a service that broadcasts live content directly to the phone screens of millions of subscribers.
VimpelCom users now have access to streams of free news headlines, sport reports, weather updates, music stories, gossip and games directly on their idle screens.
Just like a screen saver, the messages appear silently only when the phone is not in use, and let users access a variety of data service with a one-click reaction.
Using Celltick’s Interactive Broadcast technology, the service is able to communicate with millions of users in real time.
The new “Chameleon” service has been launched in a massive media campaign, including promotions in radio, billboards, Web site and shops. In its first stage “Chameleon” will be available to two million users, and the operator plans to expand it to more than 10 million users by the end of the year.
The service will be deployed across all the network’s 88 regions — from Kaliningrad in the west to Khabarovsk in the Far East. VimpelCom has created a country-wide team to run the broadcast operation, effectively working like a TV editorial team.
They will broadcast programmes based on VimpelCom’s current content sources as well as new providers such as MTV Gossip, Sony Music Trivia, Cosmopolitan and Playboy.
The operator expects “Chameleon” to boost its data revenue while increasing subscribers’ loyalty and enhancing its brand perception.
A trial of the service in the summer of 2004 achieved dramatic results. 2,000 users received broadcasts for a few weeks; 40% of them clicked on to access value added services, each adding an average of 15% to their monthly spending.
