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A new SIM-based application designed to offer a range of functions to

users of even lower end feature phones will be showcased at Africa Com in

Cape Town next week.

The Islamic SIM Service (ISS), designed by Greek electrical engineer

Yiannis Hatzopoulis, enables users to track the direction of the Kaa’bah,

receive accurate prayer timing, convert dates between Gregorian and

Arabic calendars and automatically ban incoming calls during prayer time.

The SIM will be showcased at Africa Com in Cape Town from 12 – 14

November.

Hatzopoulis says the Islamic SIM Service is currently under scrutiny by

mobile operators in several countries, but that it would be premature to

speculate on its distribution in Africa.

He says the ISS came about after he noted the success of LG’s Islamic

phones in 2009, and saw a gap in the market for good Islamic services

running on generic feature phones. He says: “I realised that I could pack

most of the functions of an Islamic phone inside a SIM card, to turn any

casual feature phone into an Islamic phone, simply through the swap of its

SIM card.”

He says he elected to release the functionality in a GSM SIM rather than a

smartphone app, because around a billion GSM feature phones are in use

in Asia and Africa, due to their low prices, long battery lives and ease of

use.

“Also, there are places where the networks have not been upgraded to 3G,

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which can support a functional smartphone with Islamic apps; and in most

places prepaid connections and high churn rates exist. The SIM is cheap,

so this type of product offering could be used as a utility gadget by mobile

networks, to attract those users that could not really afford an Islamic

phone or smartphone, but would find it convenient to introduce Islamic

features in their existing GSM phones,” says Hatzopoulis.

The concept prototype was submitted to SIMagine, a development and

business plan contest event run by SIMAlliance (www.simalliance.org) in

2010. The project won a Best Mobile App award that year, which

subsequently led to contacts with SIM manufacturers, who eventually

provided resources to build the first network connected samples for market

evaluation.

Hatzopoulis is now working with leading manufacturer Bluefish

Technologies on the project.

“This SIM basically offers on plain-vanilla feature phones what you get on

an Islamic phone/smartphone, minus the Quoran text. We get a dial-a-

Quoran voice recital instead with the SIM.”

The service is location independent and enables the user to find the

direction even when roaming, with the new prayer times and direction

automatically calculated and sent to the subscriber vie SMS or MMS.

He notes that not only can operators generate customer loyalty through the

service, they can also offer it as a subscription service or increase ARPU

due to the increased SMS usage.

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