Starcomms Launches Location-Based Service, StarTrack

February 8th, 2010 ≡ 2 comments

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Starcomms has once again scored another first by being Africa’s first CDMA operator to introduce
location based service to its subscribers. It is also the first telecommunications operator in the West
African sub-region to commence the service. Location based services are deployed in most part of the
world by many telecommunication companies to help their subscribers identify the whereabouts of
their friends, family members etc.
Branded StarTrack, the new service 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 who 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.
To enjoy StarTrack, Subscribers would be required to register for the 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 & 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. The 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 sending SMS: LIST to
33392 while the list of those that can locate a subscriber can be requested for by SMS WHO to 33393.
The CEO of Starcomms, Mr. Maher Qubain while commenting on the new Service said: “We at
Starcomms are resolved to use our services to continually affect the lives of our subscribers by ensuring
that significant value added services are offered them. StarTrack represents this resolve of ours. “
The Chief Commercial Officer of Starcomms Mr. Tushar Maheshwari also said: “We know 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. Lovers can catch up with each
other without calling; parents can track children without any exchange of voice or SMS. The service is
apt for folks always on the go who at the same time want to safeguard their feelings. We speak their
language”

If you ever need to track your friends location within Nigeria via your mobile phone, Starcomms has just made it easier. Thanks to the availability of GPS-enabled phones among other factors, the LBS (location-based services) market is set to boom in Nigeria.

In case you don’t know, location-based services are deployed in most parts of the world by telecommunication companies such as AT & T and allows subscribers track the whereabouts of their friends, family members etc.

StarTrack, the new service allows subscribers (Locators) on the Starcomms network to know where their friends, family, team and loved ones are via SMS at any given point in time, but only with the consent of the subscribers being located (Locatees).

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.

LBS  banner small new

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Yrn.me – Nigeria’s first URL Shortener Service

February 8th, 2010 ≡ 9 comments

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Nigeria has made its own mark in the url shortening space with the launch of Yrn.me on February 4th, 2010.

Since Twitter limited web users to publishing not more than 140 characters, url shortening services have continued to populate the web space. So far, shorter is better.

The first url shortener was tinyurl.com and since then others such as bit.ly, is.gd, ow.ly, tr.im, South Africa’s (gatorurl.com), Google’s (goo.gl), Facebook’s (fb.me), StumbleUpon’s (su.pr), Youtube’s (youtu.be), Friendfeed’s (ff.im), Sturvs’ (go.sturvs.com) amongst others.

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Announcing Lagos [Startup Digest]

February 4th, 2010 ≡ 2 comments

Today, I’m excitedly announcing the first edition of the Lagos [Startup Digest].

For some weeks now, I’ve been discussing with Chris McCann, co-founder  of Startup Digest, a weekly curated email list…


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Google Announces G-Nigeria Day 2010

January 22nd, 2010 ≡ 12 comments

Last August, I gave a hint that Google could be launching their G-Africa Initiative, a series of events in Sub-Saharan Africa for software developers, marketers and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Well, I…


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Nigeria’s web startups to watch in 2010!

January 15th, 2010 ≡ 17 comments

As we expect to see new and exciting web and mobile 2.0 startups and applications to be launched in 2010, I thought it would be nice to profile some of…


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Glo’s BIIIG DASH Promo Crashes

December 9th, 2009 ≡ 5 comments

When Globacom announced last week Tuesday that their subscribers can make free on-net Glo-to-Glo calls for a daily charge of N40.00 only, in a promo tagged Glo BIIIG DASH, it…


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Nigerian Computer Student Seeks to Improve Google’s Search Results

December 9th, 2009 ≡ 1 comment

A Nigerian MSc in computing student based in the UK has found a new way to improve the performance of Google’s search results. By the way, Google just launched real-time search after…


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Google Zeitgeist 2009 for Nigeria

December 1st, 2009 ≡ 4 comments

Last year, I wrote about Google’s 2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist for top and rising search words/phrases around the world and wondered why Google deliberately left out Nigerian top searches, but included those of…


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