Airtel Thanks App Now Available in Kannada for Airtel Prepaid Customers

As part of its mission to simplify the customer journey through innovative digital interventions, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has announced the launch of Kannada language support on Airtel Thanks app for prepaid customers. The feature is LIVE on Android and will be available on iOS shortly. With increasing smartphone penetration, particularly in smaller towns and villages, customers are looking for vernacular online experience. This new feature on Airtel Thanks app will drive more adoption as well as make the user experience simpler and highly interactive for Airtel customers by removing language barriers. 

Airtel Thanks app allows Airtel smartphone customers to access Digital Self Care - make recharges, bill payments, checking real time data usage/balance details. Customers can also log service related issues through the app in a matter of few clicks. The app also offers access to digital payments and financial services along with preview of Airtel’s digital entertainment library.

Says Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel: “At Airtel, we are obsessed with solving customer problems and making their experience better through digital technologies. As India transforms into a smartphone nation, close to 35% of Airtel Thanks app users now come from Tier 2/3 towns and rural markets. With deep vernacular support, Airtel Thanks app becomes even more relevant and accessible for these customers and enables them to unlock the full potential of Airtel’s exciting digital services.”

Airtel Thanks app has been fully designed and built by the in-house engineering team of Airtel.

New smart card technology by 2014, says MTA

Bus and subway riders will be able to abandon the MetroCard and use debit or credit cards to ride anywhere in the city by 2014, according to the MTA.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the first time set a target date for a no-swipe smart-card system to be in full use after years of studies and pilot programs.

With smart-card technology, riders simply waive or tap their credit or debit cards on readers when entering a subway station or bus.

Not having to swipe at turnstiles or dip a MetroCard into a fare box reader should speed travel and reduce MTA expenses, experts have said.

"I think it's great," Bill Henderson, executive director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Council. "The technology is going help out the riders and the system."

The 2014 date is included in an MTA document detailing some of the major initiatives in the five-year capital plan recently approved by the authority's governing board.

If fully funded, the capital plan will allocate $220 million for a smart-card system, which also would include prepaid cards not linked to bank or credit accounts.

Agencies