South Africa’s banking group FNB’s mobile phone business Connect has sold more than 75 500 own branded smartphones to its customers.
FNB Connect has sold more than 75 500 own branded FNB smartphone in the past year, Shadrack Palmer, the chief commercial officer at FNB Connect, told Techfinancials.
The mobile phone business of FNB started selling its own branded smartphones last August in a move that is aimed at fully integrating banking and customer mobility.
FNB is offering customers the choice of two smartphones, the ConeXis A1 and X1 respectively.
Asked whether FNB Connect is content with the uptake of its own branded smartphones, Palmer said: “ConeXis has been successful in the putting low cost smart phones in customers hands, to enable digital migration. ConeXis formed part of FNB’s digital journey, helped redefine mobile banking and delivered cost effective and innovative solutions to our customers”.
At the time of the launch last year, FNB Connect pitched the AI at the price-sensitive Easy bank account holder, who now has access to possibly their first high quality smartphone at an affordable price of only R59 per month with 15 minutes airtime and 50MB of data included.
Gold and Premium (Premier, Private Clients and Private Wealth) customers also have access to the higher specification X1 at R150 per month with 25 minutes and 100MB of data included.
To tap into this growth, FNB Connect might be planning more exciting solutions, and Palmer said: “We are continually looking for new and innovative solutions that will benefit our customers”.
In June 2015 FNB became the first bank in South Africa to launch a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
The take up of the service has been nothing short of extraordinary and at the beginning of November 2015, FNB announced that it had over 100 000 active SIMs.
FNB Connect continued to retain and attract new customers and by June 2017 it has registered more than 500 000 active customers since its launch in June 2015.
On Thursday, MyBroadband reported that FNB Connected reached 520 000 active mobile subscribers.
“FNB Connect is exceeding original expectations. Currently, Connect has acquired almost 10% of our customer base who meet product qualification criteria,” Palmer told Techfinancials.
FNB Connect is fully integrated into the digital banking systems such as Online Banking and the FNB App. Customers can check the activity on each of the SIM cards with details of each transaction made in real time.
Any actions required for SIM management such as changing limits, switching international roaming on and off, cancelling the SIM or ordering a new one can be performed from these platforms.
