Starcomms Rolls Out Rare Value Added Services

Nigeria’s highly innovative telecommunication company, Starcomms plc, has rolled out a lot of value-added services to the pleasure of its subscribers in the last few months. These services tailored to help Starcomms’ 3 million subscribers live their lives in much better ways than they would without their phones.
“At Starcomms, what stand us out are mostly our innovative services. Of course the credit for that goes to the staff. Then we have very high standard and high quality services. We just want subscribers with smiles on their faces,” said Tushar Maheshwari, Starcomms Chief Commercial Officer.
Some of these innovative services have positioned Starcomms as pioneer of a kind in West Africa and in fact the whole of Africa. For instance, Starcomms is Africa’s 1st CDMA operator to introduce location based services which are deployed by most big international telecommunications company to its subscribers.
The service, called StarTrack allows subscribers (Locators) on the Starcomms network to know the whereabouts of their Friends, Family, Team and loved ones via SMS at every point in time. This service will however be enjoyed with the consent of the subscribers being located (Locatees) to allow the locator (registered Starcomms Subscriber) to locate them. 
With the aid of StarTrack, subscribers would be able to keep up with their buddies wherever they are – in school, at the club, the cinemas, in the mall or at their office and hook up with them. This service is very useful for families, especially when parents need to know the whereabouts of their wards that may not be far from home. The parents can easily know when they are in their school and ensure their safety and wellbeing without making phone calls or sending SMS to them directly.
Subscribers would be required to register for this unique service by sending an SMS in the following format: REG & name to 33391, and then add buddies by adding them via SMS in the following format: Add & name and Starcomms number and send it to 33392.
 To locate loved ones, subscribers can send in the following SMS FIND & name or number to 33392. This service uses the mobile network locations of the cell sites and subscriber’s location would be indicated as the respective cell site location as in the vicinity of the cell site address with time & date of the Starcomms phone radiating last when the query was sent. 
Subscribers can also request for the complete list of those that can be tracked by SMS: LIST to 33392 while the list of those that can locate a subscriber can be requested for by SMS WHO to 33393.
Tushar Maheshwari said: “Starcomms StarTrack has been particularly designed to eliminate worries in the lives of people who want to be on top of their circumstances always. We recognize the fact that subscribers cannot be everywhere all the time. But the need to be in close touch without necessarily interfering in each other’s activities makes StarTrack the service of choice”
Also keeping its subscribers abreast of modernity, Starcomms is also offering all its subscribers, regardless of the quality of phones the opportunity to log on to world’s popular networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Hi5 and MySpace. The Starcomms Social Networking Service, the first in the country, creates a platform for users to connect to their web contact without the need for a computer.
Other VAS from Starcomms include Listen-to-the-Bible, and Listen-to-Quran services that enable subscribers to make use of the time they usually spend in traffic, at the bus stops or while commuting on a long trip or even for their nightly Bible and Quran study at their convenience.
To enjoy the facility Starcomms phone users will need to dial a short code *777 for Bible or *786 for Quran on their Starcomms phones to access these services and select any particular verse of Holy Bible or Quran and listen to at a fixed cost of  only N25 per call, which may last as long as an hour.
Related to the social networking service is the voice chat service. This is designed to help foster relationships among Starcomms subscribers whose personal traits align. Named Starcomms Afritalk, the service will enable customers to relate by voice with people who are not on their phone lists and so extend their span of influence.
To enjoy this service subscriber can  dial *3333 and follow the voice prompt to create their profile in their own rich format and get their identity number which would be their number to reach by anyone after the invitation has been accepted by both the Starcomms Afritalk service subscribers. 
Starcomms Afritalk enthusiasts will be able to find friends, based on the criteria they request, who match their profile and their invitation to be able to connect with the new contact on Starcomms network through voice chat. To call their contact on Afritalk, one would need to dial the allocated numeric Afritalk identity from their Starcomms phones and continue talking without revealing the real identity.