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Yesterday Intivation has, in cooperation with one of its shareholders DOEN Participations and client Digicel, donated one thousand solar powered mobile phones to the Dutch Cooperating Aid Organisations and Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution in Port au Prince.

Good communication is an absolute necessity in disaster relief but Haiti currently has a tremendous power problem, which impedes charging mobile phones. The mobile network itself still functions in many instances due to backup generators, or it can be repaired much quicker than the electricity grid.

Intivation is a Dutch company that has invented a technology to enable mobile phones that can be charged exclusively on solar power. Mobile phones that use this technology have been deployed worldwide since 2009, predominantly in regions that do not have reliable electricity girds. Over half a million of these devices have been sold worldwide in the last six months.

DOEN Foundation, financed by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, joins the effort at the urging of Intivation shareholder DOEN Participations; normally the foundation does not focus on disaster relief. DOEN foundation has been a longstanding investor in Haiti, among its participations is Sèvis Finansye Fonkoze (SFF), the country’s largest micro finance institution. This organisation helps mostly women in Haiti with small loans so they can start businesses, and it has 37 branches that can be called on for the distribution of the solar phones.

Digicel is the largest mobile network operator in the Caribbean. Digicel has lost employees and their family members in the current disaster. The company has begun an extensive aid program, in which two private planes are being used for the relief effort to transport goods, and also the solar phones, to the Port au Prince area. Once a landing slot has been granted Digicel will ensure that the solar handsets will be delivered to SFF and Cordaid, which is coordinating the effort on behalf of the Cooperating Dutch Aid Organisations.

http://www.digicelhaiti.com/en/about/news/digicel-group-donates-us-5-million-for-urgent-relief-efforts-in-haiti

http://www.intivation.nl/

Port au Prince, Republic of Haiti, and New Providence, NJ; October 29, 2008: Communication Cellulaire D’Haïti S.A. (ComCEL), the first telecommunications operator to launch GSM service in Haiti which provides high-quality affordable wireless service under the Voilà brand name, today announced the launch of Voice SMS service sourced from Kirusa. Voice SMS will enable Voilà subscribers to send messages in their own voice. Kirusa is the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value-added services.

Kirusa Voice SMS is a world renowned mobile messaging application. It enables mobile subscribers to compose short voice messages. Voilà has made the Voice SMS service available to all of its prepaid and postpaid subscribers.

To compose a Voice SMS, a Voilà subscriber just has to dial ‘*’ and the number of the person to whom they wish to send the message, speak for 20 seconds and disconnect. If the recipient is a Voilà subscriber, the individual will receive a text SMS notification and can dial *0* to hear their Voice SMS. Old Voice SMS can be retrieved by dialing *1*. They also have the option of replying, forwarding, saving or deleting the Voice SMS messages. The Voice SMS platform will automatically call off-net (who are not on the Voilà network) message recipients in Haiti and play their message. The message recipient can elect to reply after listening to the Voice SMS.

Voilà subscribers will pay HTG 3.00 (approximately USD 0.08) to send a Voice SMS. Listening to the Voice SMS for the first time is free of charge. To make the service available to its subscribers, Voilà has incorporated Kirusa Voice SMS service integrated with the NMS Vision server media platform into its mobile network.

Commenting on the occasion, Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO of Kirusa, says, “Kirusa Voice SMS has proven successful in Asia and Middle East. We are proud to have brought this successful application to Americas, specifically to Haiti.” He further added, “Voice SMS is a revenue generating service. Its derivative applications can result in incremental revenues for the operators while providing a lower cost communication service to customers than traditional voice products.”

“We are excited about the launch of Voice SMS service which opens up a new way of mobile messaging for our subscribers, first of its kind in Haiti,” said Robin Padberg, CEO of ComCEL. He further added, “Kirusa implemented the service in Haiti within six weeks, and continues to impress us with its product’s superior technology and enhanced features.”

http://www.comcelhaiti.com

http://www.kirusa.com/