An Islamic SIM card that provides religious functionality like prayer times and Qibla direction is being showcased in Africa. The SIM allows users of basic phones to access features normally only available on specialized Islamic phones. It will be displayed at the Africa Com event in Cape Town. The creator believes there is strong demand in Africa and Asia where many people rely on basic phones and may not be able to afford newer smartphones with relevant apps. Mobile operators could use the SIM to attract customers and generate additional revenue through increased SMS usage.

1. Africa Telecom & IT – Islamic SIM to be showcased in Africa
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Islamic SIM to be showcased in Africa
 Nov 06, 2013  africatelecomit.com  ICT News Updates  0
A new SIM-based application designed to offer a range of functions to users of even lower end feature
phones will be showcased at Africa Com in Cape
Town next week.
The Islamic SIM Service (ISS), designed by Greek
electrical engineer Yiannis Hatzopoulis, enables users
to track the direction of the Kaa’bah, receive accurate
prayer timing, convert dates between Gregorian and
Arabic calendars and automatically ban incoming calls
during prayer time.
The SIM will be showcased at Africa Com in Cape Town from 12 – 14 November.
Hatzopoulis says the Islamic SIM Service is currently under scrutiny by mobile operators in several
countries, but that it would be premature to speculate on its distribution in Africa.
He says the ISS came about after he noted the success of LG’s Islamic phones in 2009, and saw a gap in
the market for good Islamic services running on generic feature phones. He says: “I realised that I could
pack most of the functions of an Islamic phone inside a SIM card, to turn any casual feature phone into an
Islamic phone, simply through the swap of its SIM card.”
He says he elected to release the functionality in a GSM SIM rather than a smartphone app, because
around a billion GSM feature phones are in use in Asia and Africa, due to their low prices, long battery lives
and ease of use.
“Also, there are places where the networks have not been upgraded to 3G, which can support a functional
smartphone with Islamic apps; and in most places prepaid connections and high churn rates exist. The SIM
is cheap, so this type of product offering could be used as a utility gadget by mobile networks, to attract
those users that could not really afford an Islamic phone or smartphone, but would find it convenient to
introduce Islamic features in their existing GSM phones,” says Hatzopoulis.
The concept prototype was submitted to SIMagine, a development and business plan contest event run by
SIMAlliance (www.simalliance.org) in 2010. The project won a Best Mobile App award that year, which
subsequently led to contacts with SIM manufacturers, who eventually provided resources to build the first
network connected samples for market evaluation.
Hatzopoulis is now working with leading manufacturer Bluefish Technologies on the project.
“This SIM basically offers on plain-vanilla feature phones what you get on an Islamic phone/smartphone,
minus the Quoran text. We get a dial-a-Quoran voice recital instead with the SIM.”
The service is location independent and enables the user to find the direction even when roaming, with the
new prayer times and direction automatically calculated and sent to the subscriber vie SMS or MMS.
He notes that not only can operators generate customer loyalty through the service, they can also offer it as
a subscription service or increase ARPU due to the increased SMS usage.
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