Press Release- BSNL, Andhra Bank and Pyro launch ‘SPEEDPAY’ Service

New Delhi, July 03, 2015: Hon’ble Minister of Communications and Information Technology Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad today launched SPEED PAY service, a Mobile VISA Prepaid Card. During the launch, Secretary, (Telecom) was also present along with CMD, BSNL and other dignitaries.

SPEEDPAY is an Open Prepaid Instrument which can be used as a means for purchase of goods and services at any card accepting merchant locations (point of sale terminals) and allows cash withdrawal at ATMs/Customer Service Point. Person to person transfer is also permitted on such accounts. A customer can also get a prepaid wallet at the nearest BSNL retailer spread across India.

A major part of the population has a mobile phone, but no bank account – thus, making the case for using mobile phones for delivery of financial services. The existing models of making available Banking Services to whole population by opening new bank branches or appointing new Business Correspondent entails massive investment and time. This service aims to create self-sustainable ecosystem in rural areas so that to expand the banking services to remotest part of the country.

As, the above will require not only the massive investment but also considerable time, a solution which ride on existing infrastructure and ecosystem can be deployed with least investment and within required timeframe.

As this solution ride on existing Mobile Connectivity for transporting Banking Services to remotest part and Telco’s Retail Chain for distributing the Services, it can be deployed with minimal effort and investment.

To enable this, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and PYRO have joined hands with Andhra Bank to launch this service. The program manager and technical partner in this initiative is Pyro Networks Pvt. Ltd.

Paritosh Reddy CEO, Pyro said “Even small entrepreneurs and businessmen canbecome channel partners and set-up a merchant account and enable payments for their customers who do not have a bank account or credit card. All they need to haveis a BSNL mobile phone with internet access. These small entrepreneurs would enable people without bank accounts to pay most of their utility bills and make over-the-counter transactions."

SM Reddy, Managing Director, Pyro, shared the forthcoming plans. “The SpeedPay service is a big step towards the Prime Minister’s financial inclusion vision of India. We have been technical partners with BSNL for over ten years and have been assisting BSNL in their prepaid recharge service. We are pleased to launch SpeedPay service in partnership with BSNL and Andhra Bank.”

Launching the service, MOC&IT said, this service is first of its kind in India and targets largely the financial inclusion program of GoI. Hon’ble Prime Minister has recently launched ‘Digital India’ mission week. This service will give a boost to ‘Digital Economy’ and bridges the gap between rural India and urban India.

CMD BSNL said” This service will give boost to CASHLESS transactions. The service is operator agnostic and will be available for Mobile Customers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states from today onwards. This in-turn will increase BSNL customer base. The service will be launched in other parts of India also very soon.”