CanalPDA

Here it comes: Movistar is the first Spanish mobile carrier targeting the youngest customers, and it does with a set of services focused specifically on the parents’ peace of mind. And this has just started: half of Spanish children between 10 and 15 years old already have a cellphone, and the figure increases to almost 80 percent between 16-17 years. At this rate, parents will soon be able to consumate their resignation as such, finally delegating their responsibilities to their mobile carriers.

Telefónica Móviles has announced a new mobile phone pack addressed to Spanish families that still intend to retain some level of control over how their children use cellphones. The new pack, to be launched next Friday at 105 €, includes a Motorola C-650 cell phone with funny stickers to customize your phone and a Movistar Activa Tu Tiempo prepayment card, plus several consumption-limit and geo-location services:

• Call restrictions: allows defining 15 numbers that the phone can call, besides emergency numbers and movistar’s free numbers.
• Messaging restrictions: 15 numbers to which the phone can’t sent text (SMS) nor multimedia (MMS) messages. Number ranges can also be restricted, thus avoiding premium messaging to contests, drawings and so on.
• Localízame: after the user has expressly authorized it, this service provides an SMS containing the street, the city and the post code where the cell phone is located, within a 200-m radius in urban areas (5 km in rural settings).
• Reverse charging: it allows calls to any movistar line in Spain to be charged to the called party. The destination number gets first a spoken message asking for acceptance.
• Limited access to adult content in emoción:: it allows limiting access to adult pages in emoción, movistar’s WAP content portal.

Besides the above services, the pack also includes the free registration in movistar’s Mi Favorito and Mis Cinco services, as well as two games.

The company says the new pack is endorsed by the Spanish Consumers’ Union, and the SOS Aldeas Infantiles organization will get an euro for each pack sold.

Carriers and cell phones for children

Movistar’s new pack is the first one in the Spanish market addressed to the children’s market. In other countries this market has already been targeted actively by major brands. For instance, Disney recently announced the launch of Disney Mobile, its own mobile carrier that will operate as a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), using Sprint’s network.

There’s also the Firefly cell phone, that looks more like a toy than an electronic device with its reduced set of buttons and bright colours.

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