DotMe! Etisalat’s version of Twitter

L-R: Messrs Steven Evans; Tom Keane, and Enitan Denloye @ DotMe launch in Lagos

DotMe, a new service from Etisalat Nigeria is a way of sharing information and giving updates via Short Messaging Service (SMS) at a very low rate while giving other contacts the opportunity to see the updates.

For an average industry observer, DotMe from Etisalat is its own version of Twitter.

DotME, Etisalat officials said was introduced in the bid to continuously provide innovative telecommunications solutions to its 9 million subscribers, thereby marking a record of the only telecommunications network in Nigeria.

Wael Ammar, the Chief Commercial Officer of Etisalat, expressed conviction that this innovative way to quickly share information with more people would prove useful to both individuals from all works of life, businesses, and other organisations like churches, mosques, and government organisations.

He also said that DotMe is a platform where a dotter, an Etisalat subscriber could publish an information update not more than 140 character like normal SMS on his dashboard, which could be viewed by any other person, both Etisalat users and those on any other network anywhere in the world.

DotME, information sharing platform on-the-go, he said, requires just an Etisalat line for the dotter and credit for the follower to be able to access the latest update by the dotter.

For him, with DotMe the type of phone one is using is not a barrier, as it’s an SMS platform product with no registration required for using it.

According to Rahila Isa Oni, Specialist High Value Segme, while presenting an Intro to DotMe, said the product is designed like twitter and it’s very affordable, a means to pass message across to many contacts at a time with just one naira.

She also said that DotMe would soon be upgraded before the end of the year, but added that with just a Naira, an Etisalat subscriber could post an update by sending an SMS of not more than 140 characters to the short code “8900” and other Etisalat user (s) could access the update with just one naira while other network subscribers pay normal SMS rate as applicable.

“A status message published will run for a period of 30 days unless the status message is deleted by sending (.) to the short code or the status message is overwritten by another update,” she said.

By just sending a dot (.) with a dotter’s Etisalat number in an SMS to “8900” from any network, the person sending the message gets the latest update of dotter, the subscriber whose number is typed after the dot, right on his or her phone in less than a minute.

Complementing the voice and text capabilities of mobile phones by offering a simple and ubiquitous publishing capability, DotMe can be used by individuals as well as corporate organisations and associations.

While answering questions of the press, Rahila said the product can be put to usage in variety of ways, as it can be used by cinemas to pass message across to people about their movie schedule with just a Naira, while supermarkets and stores can also make use of the service in giving update of the goods in stock.

An invention developed by Telsis, a UK-based company, while stressing the importance of effective communications to business and people, the founder and chairman of Telsis, Jeff Wilson said they are pleased to have Etisalat as their DotMe’s launch customer.

Yinka Ayosanya;

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