Johannesburg — THE days when South Africans will pay for a taxi ride by simply transferring the fare to the driver's cellphone are not far away, the head of SA's largest cellphone company said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of the M- Pesa mobile money transfer service that will be jointly run with Nedbank, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys says the possibilities are endless.

And if Kenya's experience with its own M-Pesa service is anything to go by, Mr Uys and Nedbank CEO Mike Brown believe they have not only struck a rich vein, but also opened a new frontier in the battle for theunbanked.

According to Will Graylin, ROAM's CEO,"We are very pleased to have this relationship with Global to deliver the lowest-cost and most scalable mobile commerce solution for mobile and micro merchants to accept credit card payments on their own mobile phones."  The ROAMpay Swipe is the world's first encrypted swiper attached to the audio jack of cell phones and PCs, to enable a highly cost effective card present solution for merchants.   The ROAM platform also is the only solution today that enable large merchants like Direct Sales companies to customize their own mobile applications on the fly, from order entry to inventory lookup, and much more, delivered to various phones their sales reps carry.

Graylinadds, "Because of our device agnostic mobile application platform, we have more innovative applications on the way, for merchants to win customers and we support more phones than anyone else on the market. ROAM is now certified with vast majority the major processors in the United States-- Global is the latest to join our supported processors. We very much look forward to working with Global and their affiliates."

About ROAM Data

Headquartered in Boston,ROAM Data enables merchants to transact with their customers on mobile devices easily and securely. ROAM's affordable and scalable commerce applications can run on hundreds of mobile phone models as easily as on one, and fall into two primary categories: 1) Merchants apps that turn mobile merchant's cell phones into POS terminals, for vendors, contractors, delivery staff to accept card payment, and for direct salesreps and mobile workforces to place orders, check inventory, enroll newrecruits and more. 2) Consumer apps to shop and buy goods and services,do online banking, accept offers/coupons and more, all from the convenience of their own cell phones.  With ROAM's patented, device-agnostic platform, companies can reach up to 15 times more mobileusers, and update their apps more than 20 times faster when compared todevice-specific, static application approach, which require individual programming and certification for every mobile device type and for everyapplication change. ROAM's full mCommerce services also include end-user app provisioning, rights management and alerts. Secure transactions are done through ROAM's PCI-certified payment gateway. Visit us at www.roamdata.com.

Having held executive positions within a number of Telcos across Europe, including leading Danish operator TDC, Jakobsen also has extensive payment industry experience as the former President and CEO of the largest Telco data and clearing house Dannet/MACH. His appointment will further strengthen Mi-Pay's ability todrive competitive service and operational advantage to international mobile operators, MVNO's and financial institutions.

Original founder and former CEO, Norman Frankel, will retain a central role within Mi-Pay, as part of the executive management team and as Chief Business Development Officer where he will focus on developing the strategic relationships that will be vital for Mi-Pay's future success.

Commenting on his new role Jakobsen confirms, "I am thrilled to take on this new challenge. Mi-Pay has already proven its value since its inception in 2004; becoming a leadingglobal player in the dynamic mobile payments market, which is projectedto reach US$264.8 billion by the year 2015*. We are now ready to take the next step in Mi-Pay's growth strategy. We have a strong customer base that includes the likes of Du, Tesco, Carphone Warehouse and Zain. Our proven, multi-channel payments platform is supported by a dedicated team who demonstrate true passion for customer service. Norman has been instrumental in achieving this and we both look forward to taking Mi-Pay's mobile banking, money transfer and international and domestic top-ups to an even wider audience than ever before."

In terms of his objectives, Jakobsen is clear, "Growth and innovationare a core part of Mi-Pay's corporate DNA. We will continue to develop and deploy new mobile payments services that reflect the strategic direction of our customers. We have aggressive regional expansion plans to boost our International Airtime Transfer network to over 60 countriesby the end of the year. In addition, we will continue to invest in our PCI Level 1 certified platform to add value to our bespoke managed services as well as white label solutions."

Commenting on Jakobsen's appointment, Executive Chairman of the BoardMichael Dickerson states, "Since Mi-Pay's foundation over 6 years ago, the company has experienced phenomenal growth. To ensure we are ready for the next phase, we are evolving our organisational structure as wellas our solutions. Allan has the Telco and payment industry experience we need to drive further into operator based services as well as a considerable track record of commercial success. At Mi-Pay, Allan is part of a great team; we welcome his valued contribution and leadership."

This world record-breaking speed is necessary for businesses managinghuge workloads, such as banks and retailers, especially as the world becomes increasingly more inter-connected, data has grown beyond the world's storage capacity, and business transactions continue to skyrocket.

For example, according to a study by Berg Insight, the number of active users of mobile banking and related financial services worldwide is forecasted to increase from 55 million in 2009 to 894 million in 2015.  

Such trends are driving the need for innovation in systems that can help clients take advantage of them to provide new services and develop new business models.  In response, IBM continues to invest in systems innovation -- delivering workload-optimized systems with innovation in microprocessors, software and hardware.  

The new zEnterprise technology is the result of an investment of more than $1.5 billionin IBM research and development in the zEnterprise line, as well as more than three years of collaboration with some of IBM's top clients around the world.

z196 Processor

The z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistorson a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface. The chip was designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was manufactured using IBM's 45 nanometer (nm) SOI processor technology in the company's 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. There were also major contributions to the z196 processor development from IBM labs in Austin, TX, Germany, Israel and India,

The mainframe processor makes use of IBM's patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology, which allows IBM to place dense DRAM caches, or components, on the same chips as high-speed microprocessors, resulting in improved performance.

The New zEnterprise 196

From a performance standpoint, the zEnterprise System is the most powerful commercial IBM system ever. The core server in the zEnterprise System --called zEnterprise 196 -- contains 96 of the world's fastest, most powerful microprocessors, capable of executing more than 50 billion instructions per second. That's roughly 17,000 times more instructions than the Model 91, the high-end of IBM's popular System/360 family, could execute in 1970.

This new IBM microprocessor technology has new software to optimize performance of data-heavy workloads, including up to a 60% improvement in data intensive(1) and Java workloads(2)  Increased levels of system performance, in turn, increases software performance, which can reduce software license costs.  

The new system offers 60% more capacity than its predecessor, the System z10, and uses about the same amount of electricity.    

Energy efficiencies were achieved through advances in microprocessor design, 45nm silicon technology, more efficient power conversion and distribution, as well as advanced sensors and cooling control firmware that monitors and makes adjustments based on environmental factors such as temperature and humidity levels and even air density.  

The combination of zEnterprise chip speed, memory, system reliability, availability, security and storage architecture provide an optimal environment for managing the world's most demanding workloads.