Mobile internet and Mobile commerce makes a lot of sense in the context of Indian market. There are more than 100 Million people equipped with a mobile phone. But there are only around 40 Million people actively using internet. Mostly because of the lack of internet access services. Most users do not have internet access at home and their primary place of internet access is either office or internet cafes. While access in office is restricted both interms of sites and work hours, accessing internet from cafes is totally insecure. So, many hesitate to buy stuff on internet.

Mobile internet and Mobile commerce offers a solution that is a blessing in a situation like that. With Mobile internet, You can access internet any where, any time right from your mobile and it is very secure.  And Mobile commerce solutions like M-Wallet makes it much more safe and easy to do shopping, because you do not have to enter Credit card information every time you make a purchase.

Keeping the importance of Mobile Internet in that context, its a reason for celebration that Mobile Commerce solutions are revving up in India and recently also got a boost with Industry backing and Venture funding. The two prominent solutions in news recently are JiGrahak’s NGPay  and   PayMate. In this post, we will cover NGPay and cover PayMate in an upcoming post.

What is NGPay: JiGrahak’s NGPay is a free Mobile Wallet service that enable users to make payments via their cell phones in a secured way. Users enter their credit card information only once during the setup. Then, Users can buy products like airline tickets, movie tickets, flowers, books etc from Merchants partnering with NGPay platform, without entering credit card information again. Also, each user will have a secure PIN that must be entered to proceed with the transaction. Payment is automatically made from your Wallet, through your credit card. You can top up your NGPay account with any credit card. Debit card support is on the way.

Air Deccan and Sify Mall are the first partners of this platform at the time of writing. Pretty soon, you can also pay your friends or communities using NGPay. Regarding venture funds, JiGrahak also received a $2.2 million funding from Helion Venture Partners recently.

What you need: All you need is a Java enabled Mobile Phone with service that enables you to access internet, like GPRS connection. Around 150 models support Java and are capable of GPRS connections.

How to Start: Send an SMS message with ‘NGPAY DND’ to +91 9945444000 OR logon to www.ngpay.com from your mobile phone browser to download NGPay.   

How to Access the service: Switch on your mobile. Go to Air Deccan or Sify Mall and shop what you want. Pay with your NGPay wallet (additionally you can pay with credit card also). Watch for a demo from the links below to get an idea.

For more information visit the following links:

• NGPay Home Page: http://www.ngpay.com/jsp/index.jsp 
• How to buy tickets at AirDeccan: http://www.ngpay.com/faqs/Air Deccan/FAQs.html
• Watch a demo on how to buy Air Tickets from Air Deccan.
• How to shop at Sify Mall: http://www.ngpay.com/faqs/Sifymall/BuyProduct.htm
• Watch a demo on how to shop in Sify Mall.
• List of supported Mobile Handsets
  We will review Paymate in an upcoming post. So stay tuned. You can subscribe to our RSS Feed or subscribe by Email (provided by Feedburner) by entering your email address at the bottom of this page. You can also send an email to inspions@gmail.com with any suggestions and topics that you want to cover.

Thanks for visiting ‘The Cellular Life Style’. We hope you will enjoy reading it and get relevant information that you can use to your advantage, to have more fun and to enjoy your mobile life style.

McAfee Avert Labs Blog posted last friday (25th August, 2006) about a Phishing attack, that is started by an SMS on your mobile phone. This may not be a direct security threat for your Mobile phone, but a severe threat for your desktop/laptop computers and network that you are connected to.

This phenomena, which we at McAfee Avert Labs are dubbing “SMiShing” (phishing via SMS), is yet another indicator that cell phones and mobile devices are becoming increasingly used by perpetrators of malware, viruses and scams

The attack starts with an SMS on your mobile phone indicating that you have signed up for a dating service and you will be charged $2 per day unless you visit a URL and cancel your subscription. And for many this looks like a real SMS. So when you visit the URL, the website will prompt you to download an application which is a Trojan horse that makes your computer a zombie, and exposing it to hackers.

So, beware of such SMS messages. The SMS Message might look like  a message from a real Dating service or Your Ring tone service provider or any body for that matter, which you would never suspect. But when you receive such an SMS,

• Check that URL whether that is a Phishing website or real service provider. A search in Google or security websites like McAfee with the URL might help.  
• If you don’t find any thing on Google but you are still suspicious, better not to visit the website.
• If you are aware that your Dating service used to send SMS messages to remind you of your subscriptions, You can call up the Dating service or relevant service provider, and confirm your subscriptions just to make sure every thing is fine.
• If your dating service never sent you SMS reminders about your subscriptions, you can fully ignore the SMS.
• If you are in doubt, do not access the URL. 

And particularly, DO NOT ACCESS such URLs from your office network. If the hackers succeed to have you install the application on your office computer or your personal laptop accessing office internet, the consequences will be severe.

If you haven’t noticed, the mobile we knew of is gone. Today, we CAN take  pictures, record video, access email, browse internet, download music, watch TV, use cell phone as a smart card, pay at a shop, listen to podcasts, write your blog and the list goes on almost endless. 

But, here is glimpse of what today’s Mobile can do or have. You can carry all those gadgets seperately if you love to. Or you can carry Just Your Mobile that does all of them. We love to call having a mobile that does all these and a lot more, ‘The Cellular Life Style’, a mobile centric world.

Luckily many mobiles available today have most of the features. For some like Video, not all current networks support the speed for an effective use and an enjoyable experience. But the networks are pretty close to getting an upgrade. So, that will not be a factor any more. Get a cool mobile and enjoy the life style.

What do you think? What do you want from Your Mobile ? A plain old glorified cordless phone or a magical widget that does all you need (and a lot more awaiting)?  What kind of features or facilities are you looking for in a mobile. Do you see any benefits in a  mobile centric lifestyle? 

Leave us a comment about what you think. We will have more on what specific feature set is currently available in each market with each service provider. Stay tuned. You can subscribe to our RSS Feed or subscribe by Email (provided by Feedburner) by entering your email address at the bottom of this page. You can also send an email to inspions@gmail.com with any suggestions and topics that you want to cover. Thanks for visiting ‘The Cellular Life Style’. We hope you will enjoy reading it and get relevant information that you can use to your advantage, to have more fun and to enjoy your mobile life style.