International money remittance – the business of electronically sending money abroad – is a booming market, with users in the U.S. sending about $42 billion annually to other countries. Now that same market dynamic will cause an explosion in the international mobile top-up business.

International mobile top-up enables immigrants in the U.S. to purchase mobile airtime for their friends and family in their native countries. Topping-up is easy for the person remitting payment. Usually all that’s needed is the carrier’s name, the receiver’s mobile number and the amount the buyer would like to apply to the account.  The retail agent accepts the payment and enters the information on a physical or virtual terminal interface.  The receiving party usually gets an SMS text message on their mobile phone stating the amount their account has been topped-up in their local currency.  The remitter is not known by the carrier or acknowledged in this SMS message.

For mobile operators and resellers, mobile top-up means the ability to reach beyond their domestic market for a new source of revenue in any number of fertile countries currently experiencing rapid wireless network build out.



Rising immigration fuels the market

Both the international money remittance and mobile top-up markets will continue to grow, considering the healthy flow of immigrants to the United States. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (ALIA), approximately 800,000 people immigrate legally to the U.S. each year.  Family-sponsored immigrants total 480,000 each year, and employment-based immigrants total 140,000 annually. Employment-based immigrants are primarily skilled professionals and other priority workers sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Labor to take on jobs that U.S. workers can’t fill. Another 55,000 immigrants arrive in the U.S. under the lottery system that makes visas available to nationals from “undersubscribed” countries.  The leading source countries for legal immigration are: Mexico, which sends about 91,000 a year; Vietnam, which sends 78,000; and the Philippines, which sends 59,000.  Nearly three-fourths of all new immigrants intend to reside in six states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois.

In addition to legal immigrants, the number of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. has grown with an estimated 11.8 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in January 2007, compared to 8.5 million in 2000. Between 2000 and 2007, the unauthorized population increased 3.3 million; the annual average increase during this period was 470,000. Nearly 4.2 million or 35 percent of the total population of unauthorized residents in 2007 had entered since 2000. An estimated 7 million or 59 percent were from Mexico. Although there was a decline in last year’s Mexican migrants remittance for the first time in history, this market is still a powerful financial vein that keeps Latin American economies pumping. Mexico’s second-largest source of foreign income (after oil) plunged 3.6 percent to $25 billion in 2008 compared to $26 billion for the previous year, according to Guillermo Ortiz, President of the Bank of Mexico.

Regardless of your political viewpoint about immigration, most of those immigrants have family and friends back home that they support from their outpost here in the U.S. Often they pay bills and send money there before meeting their own personal needs here.  That means big opportunity when it comes to the international money remittance business – and will likely mean strong revenues for international mobile top-up.

As readers of The Prepaid Press, you already know that prepaid products and services have been a main source of communications abroad for both legal and illegal immigrants.  VoIP, wireless, phone cards, and other prepaid services provide the circuit that enables users to reach out to relatives across the border or overseas in ways that were once not possible.



Wireless build-out abroad creates the perfect storm

Nations all over the world have transformed from times of archaic handwritten communication methods, first to shoddy wireline service and now to modern 3G connectivity, in one fell swoop. Internationally there is a much larger rollout of wireless network coverage than of wireline networks. Currently there are almost 3,000 analog and digital cellular networks live or planned for rollout around the world. The GSM Association (GSMA) reports 3.5 billion GSM and 3GSM mobile connections active at the time of writing this article. GSM is the most widely used protocol in wireless communications worldwide.  Most countries worldwide now have multiple carriers and brands battling it out, competing for new subscribers.

This lays the perfect ground for international mobile top-up growth. With the current worldwide trend of flattening borders and economies, carriers are looking outside their borders for ways to generate additional revenue. While there are many aspects to consider, including international tariffs, taxes, exchange rates, and real time integration with carriers and aggregators, service providers are connecting with distribution channels around the globe to expand their country specific businesses.

Movistar, one of the more innovative companies in the Latin wireless community, has a program that allows U.S. based customers to purchase handsets from point-of-sale literature. The devices are then delivered to their family or friends in their native countries. U.S. retailers display posters with several different models and price points.  Models retail from $55.00 to $285.00 with two price points, $120.00 and $200.00, in between.  The Mexico Cell Packs are available as both a physical carded product and electronic PIN format for E-POS providers.

And these phones are not barebones. The more expensive models include cameras, MP3 players and Bluetooth connectivity.  All include initial airtime, taxes and delivery of the handset to the remitter’s requested recipient. In Mexico, the carrier delivers an active wireless phone that is pre-loaded with airtime and ready to use.  Recipients do not have to pay anything when receiving the handset.

After the initial purchase, the likelihood of the remitter returning to the location to purchase additional airtime to top-up the mobile phone in Mexico is almost guaranteed.  It’s assumed that the initial purchaser of the handset will also be the primary source of top-up minutes for the device over time.

In fact, the phone program was designed to encourage additional top-up and not just become a one use, throwaway product. All packs in Mexico include minutes for $350 pesos, in which the first equivalent $50 pesos are loaded when the handset is activated. The remaining additional $300 pesos will be loaded as the customer performs subsequent refills. 



Building customer loyalty via top-up

Mobile top-up also enables an ongoing relationship between carriers and their users. First the carrier develops a one-to-one relationship with the consumer by delivering the phone to the recipient’s residence. Then carriers continue to market international top-up service to phone users in their native countries in hopes they will request the service through their friend or relative abroad. These advertisements are posted on the carrier’s website, sent to customers via email and SMS, and are included in bills or other promotions that are mailed to consumers.

What’s more, a carrier or MVNO can build loyalty (and revenue) by introducing new services, mobile commerce applications and affinity programs. Many providers now offer games, ringtones, graphics and instant messaging services that can be deducted from the account balance.  As amounts are remitted in U.S. dollars and converted to the currency of the native country, the amount can be channeled to pay for these services. 



PIN vs. real-time top-up: the ups and downs

Not all international top-up uses a real-time, store-to-switch transaction to replenish accounts.  Some international providers still utilize PINs to represent various increments of airtime or service units.  This methodology is not considered to be real-time as the account is not topped-up at the point of sale.  There are additional steps that need to be taken before the required authorization code is applied and the account is replenished. In many regions this is still considered top-up, but PIN distribution is still required using either physical cards or the preferred electronic vouchers.

In countries where GSM and GPRS (general packet radio service) are the only network protocols available, distributors and retail agents utilize a wireless handset as the point-of-sale device. The phone’s number is considered an authorized terminal on the network and interacts with the system host to provide transactions for PIN distribution and sales.  There are as many methods as there are carriers and distributors.  Some have sophisticated interfaces and devices plugged into smart phones; others use simple SMS messaging for PIN requests and acknowledgement.  As unsecure as this may sound, the reality is a PIN delivered via SMS is less likely to be fraudulent than a printed voucher or card in some countries.  Fraud is rampant and printing reproductions of cards that contain bogus authorization codes is commonplace.

Still some carriers prefer PIN-based products, which are incremented to standardized amounts.  In countries where an average teenager cannot afford a voice plan, PINs are sold for services such as text, graphics and songs.  Obviously this is not the customer that everyone is searching for, but essentially this is the same as selling the $2.00 phone cards that are very popular in the US prepaid marketplace.

Ultimately, real-time top-up reduces fraud dramatically as there is no card that can be duplicated and presented as inventory. With top-up, as long as the remitter is in proximity of, or has communication with the responsible party, airtime balances can be checked and verified.  Real-time top-up also provides a more concise method of keeping the books on accounts. Statements of all mobile transactions are available and can be used as additional verification to reconcile.  

International mobile top-up is predicted to be the “killer app” in the prepaid and remittance marketplace this year.  Obviously not all markets are ripe for this service and capability, but in large metro cities and rural agricultural areas where migrants flock for work, it is an important tool that can add new revenue streams and new customers.  As a result, almost every major service provider is working with partners to develop international or cross-border services that keep U.S. based immigrants in touch with friends and families at home.  As migration increases and borders decrease in our rapidly changing new world, providing international services such as mobile top-up and cross-border bill payment will position participating companies for worldwide expansion and opportunities.



Bruce Burke is Director of Marketing & Sales for iPayStation. He can be reached at bruce@ipaystation.com.