{"id":67024,"date":"2024-02-18T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?p=67024"},"modified":"2024-02-18T17:31:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T17:31:47","slug":"which-telco-introduced-please-call-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/which-telco-introduced-please-call-me","title":{"rendered":"Which Telco introduced \u201cPlease call me\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. <\/strong><\/span>Do you remember \u201cplease call me\u201d? The service that allowed you to send a message to another person asking them to call you back because you don\u2019t have airtime.<\/b><\/p>\n

It used to be very popular in Ghana, but no one really talks about or uses it anymore in the country. I don\u2019t remember the last time anyone sent me a \u201cplease call me\u201d message. In fact, I believe all the telcos in Ghana have completely deactivated that service.<\/p>\n

Apparently, it all started from South Africa, where there is a raging legal battle over who owns it and who deserves to the paid compensation for it.<\/p>\n

The case started with a former employee of Vodacom, Nkosana Makate suing the company for over $530 million as compensation for the use of the \u201cplease call me\u201d service between 2001 and 2019. Makate claims to be the inventor of the service.<\/p>\n

Vodacom did not dispute Makate\u2019s claim of owning the idea, but offered to pay something far less than Makate asked for as compensation \u2013 $2.5 million. But the apex court of South Africa upheld Makate\u2019s pleas and has asked Vodacom to come up with a fairer offer. That ruling was delivered just on Tuesday, February 6, 2024.<\/p>\n

MTN contractor claims ownership<\/b><\/p>\n

However, a former MTN contractor called Ari Kahn is also claiming ownership of the \u201cplease call me\u201d idea, and his evidence in-chief was a patent he filed ahead of the 2001 launch of Makate\u2019s idea at Vodacom.<\/p>\n

The court however heard the testimony of a US-based independent computer science expert, Ivan Zatkovich, about the vast differences between the technologies behind MTN\u2019s \u201cplease call me\u201d service and that of Vodacom. On the basis of that testimony, both MTN and Vodacom agreed that the two ideas may have had similar front-end manifestations but in terms of the backend technology, they are mutually exclusive. So neither MTN nor Vodacom is disputing Makate\u2019s claim to being the inventor of at least one of the two.<\/p>\n

Find the full details of Ivan Zatkowich\u2019s presentation to the court on the vast difference between Vodacom\u2019s and MTN\u2019s \u201cplease call me\u201d services below:<\/p>\n

Vastly different<\/b><\/p>\n

During the trial, Makate called an American computer science and telecommunications expert, Ivan Zatkovich, as a witness to testify about the differences between Vodacom and MTN\u2019s offerings.<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s service<\/b><\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s patent, according to Zatkovich, was based on an interactive voice response (IVR) system.<\/p>\n

Elaborating on the mechanics of an IVR system, Zatkovich said: \u201cAn example of this was the automated voice menu presented to you when calling an institution, such as a bank or insurance company to query something. A voice would come on saying, \u2018Press one to check your account balance\u2019 or \u2018Press two to talk to customer services\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In practice, an MTN subscriber would call an IVR system, proceed to enter a key code and then enter the recipient\u2019s phone number in order to initiate a \u201cplease call me\u201d message.<\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s service <\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Vodacom\u2019s \u201cplease call me\u201d was based on a messaging system known as unstructured supplementary service data (USSD).<\/p>\n

Said Zatkovich: \u201cA USSD message, which includes Party A and Party B\u2019s phone numbers, gets sent from the cellular phone of Party A (the person with no airtime) to the internal USSD server (infrastructure of a telecoms company). (The server) then extracts Party A\u2019s and Party B\u2019s phone numbers, composes a message in the form of an actual text message, which reads \u2018Please call Party A\u2019s phone number\u2019 (and gives the number).\u201d<\/p>\n

The court also accepted Zatkovich\u2019s testimony that the business model of the MTN and Vodacom system was different: Vodacom targeted customers with a prepaid cellphone but no airtime, while MTN \u201cgave no indication of what market it was directed at\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vodacom didn\u2019t challenge Zatkovich\u2019s submission that Makate\u2019s \u201cplease call me\u201d service was \u201ca novel and patentable idea\u201d. It only led the evidence of former group CEO Alan Knott-Craig, who was found to have lied about inventing the service.<\/p>\n

Curiously, MTN never applied to intervene in the court case, although its patent was prominently pitted against that of Vodacom. The left it all to Ari Kahn, who failed to prove that he was the inventor of Vodacom\u2019s version of the \u201cplease call me\u201d offering.<\/p>\n

So, as things stand now, Vodacom has been ordered by the apex court to make a better offer to Makate, on the basis that he is entitled to something between 5-7.5% of the earnings Vodacom made from the services over the 18-year period between 2001 and 2019.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Ghana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. Do you remember \u201cplease call me\u201d? The service that allowed you to send a message to another person asking them to call you back because you don\u2019t have airtime. It used to be very popular in Ghana, but no one really talks about or uses it anymore in the country. I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":67023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[5092,5096,429],"class_list":["post-67024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-ghana"],"yoast_head":"\nWhich Telco introduced \u201cPlease call me\u201d? - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you remember \u201cplease call me\u201d? 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