18 April 2005, Celtel launches new Me2U service

Celtel Kenya Ltd has launched another new and revolutionary service into the Kenyan market. This innovative service known as Me2U makes it possible for every prepaid Celtel customer to share airtime and top up mobile phones of their friends and family members directly from their own mobile phones.

Me2U is a first for the Kenyan mobile market and meets the needs of the consumers by offering numerous benefits like:

• 24 hours availability of airtime
• Wide convenient recharge availability
• Top up on behalf of family members
• Flexible and inexpensive recharge denominations

The Me2U service is a Celtel to Celtel direct airtime transfer which uses the standard GSM based handset. Now, any Celtel customer can share the airtime they have in their phone with another customer.

The airtime is transferred by sending an SMS to the recipient indicating the amount you want to share. To send airtime, you type 2u (space) number of the recipient-073xxxxxxx (space) Amount (space) password and send this message to a short code 5050. For each airtime transfer, the normal SMS charge of 5 shillings per message applies.

The default password is 1234 but when you send airtime for the first time, you receive a message asking to change your code to protect your account from unauthorised usage.

You can transfer any amount of airtime from 50 shillings to 9,999 shillings. The service is not only user friendly but also secure. Posters and flyers have been produced to explain clearly how to transfer airtime.

Celtel Kenya Chief Marketing Officer Gilles Atayi, said ‘The new innovative Me2U service will further enhance availability of airtime. Through Me2U subscribers with airtime will be able to share airtime with their friends and family. “Imagine, stationed in Nairobi a subscriber will be able to send airtime to his mother in the rural area in Mpeketoni or Lodwar at any time. It does not matter where one is so long as there is network coverage, one will be able to share airtime.’

The new Me2U service will be supported by consumer education using a wide array of media including radio, press and posters. There will also be leaflets in English and Swahili to explain the service functionality. Atayi further added that there will also be direct consumer contact activities to assist Celtel subscribers better understand the service and be able to make the most use of it.

The service utilizes a number of advanced security features which include the encryption of SMS transmissions for the transactions, password management systems and a database encryption mechanism all geared to provide a secure but hassle free environment to transact.

The Me2U innovation directly supports Celtel’s commitment of making life better.