STRATEGIC PARTNERS
December 19, 2001
SYDNEY - Vodafone Australia is offering a program that will allow customers to purchase recharge services for the company's FastFone mobile telephones at National Bank ATMs throughout Australia.
To recharge the phones, National Bank customers insert their ATM cards into the machine, input their PIN numbers, and select the recharge amount. The ATM prints out a receipt with a recharge purchase number on it; Vodafone customers dial a four-digit number on their phones and input the receipt number to receive the charge.
Vodafone introduced the FastFone concept as an alternative to normal cellular phone services. The service does not require a contract and there are no monthly bills; customers purchase the phones with a certain amount of call time available, then recharge the phones whenever they run out of call time.
Omaha, Nebraska-based software development company ACI Worldwide is supplying the software infrastructure for the Vodafone-National Bank project.
