Open Source Mobile Payment Innovation in the Middle East Generates Arabic Language Interface on the Fly

RAMALLAH, Palestine, April 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the Palestine's leading bank's new online mobile payment service is the unlikely source of the next generation in rapid deployment ecommerce middleware, including an Arabic text interface that was built in a matter of weeks. This innovation in open source software for mobile payments is the result of a collaboration between a Palestinian IT company, PCNC Solutions, and developers at the Austin-based telecom middleware firm Telestax.

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Mobile payments are becoming extremely popular in Palestine, which helps transactions on the fly, reduces the dependency of customers to visit traditional banks and hence avoid the commuting and challenges associated with it. The leading bank of Palestine saw a growing need to move forward with mobile payments as long as local merchants and customers were able to access the service simply and effectively. The Added Value Services division at the Bank of Palestine called in the experts at PCNC to custom build a solution because PCNC has a proven track record. PCNC delivers and implements broad portfolio of information technology solutions based on HP Data Center and VeriFone E-Payment. PCNC is also known locally as a leader in delivering Data Center monitoring, management, and mobile payment solutions.

During development, PCNC quickly realized that PalPay merchants and customers would need Arabic language support on an Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) Gateway. PCNC brought in Telestax because the telecom middleware specialists from Austin, TX, excel in rapid deployment of commercial grade telecommunications middleware through its growing community of open source projects. The new solution from Telestax made it possible to communicate between incompatible hardware and communications infrastructures to quickly build an Arabic language support system onto the PCNC mobile payment software.

As a result of the collaboration with Telestax, PCNC Solutions was able to go to market with the Arabic language interface to its new mobile payment service in a matter of weeks. TelScale USSD Gateway exposes a RESTful HTTP API to third-party applications. Even though the PalPay application was built completely in C, it was straightforward for Telestax developers to integrate the innovative technology with Telscale USSD Gateway on a Telscale JSLEE Platform with minimal effort. Since many of PalPay's customers understand Arabic, the out-of-box multi language support from Telscale USSD Gateway proved a valuable capability.

Unlike traditional USSD products, the Open Source based Telscale USSD Gateway offers complete transparency of what's happening under the hood. Full access to persisted MAP Dialog messages helps PalPay audit and data mine all actions executed by the end users.

Company info:

For more information on the Bank of Palastine's PalPay mobile payments, contact the Added Value Services devision at 970 (02) 2965010 or http://www.bankofpalestine.com

PCNC Solutions is a leading Palestinian IT Company delivering business solutions to enterprises.

PCNC differentiates itself in the IT marketplace by providing turnkey solutions, innovation and industry thought leadership. For more information on PCNC's role in PalPay, contact PCNC general manager Iyad Qumsieh at [email protected]

For details on Telestax and the Telscale SMSC Gateway deployment at uFone, contact Amit Bhayani, general manager for APAC, at amit.bhayani at telestax dot com

SOURCE Telestax