mChek is an easy mobile payment technology which has revolutionized the Indian m-commerce industry! I had last year looked at ngpay which I thought was one of the premier payment gateways but truly mChek appears to be the market leader with the host of services that it offers. I decided to check out mCheck features as a novice consumer and this is what I could accomplish:
1. In order to use mChek as a payment device, i registered my mobile on mcheck web site which sent me a download link for installing mChek application on my mobile which i downloaded and installed in no time.
2. The application required me to activate my account and setting up mcheck activation password. It then offered me to set up my debit or credit card. I added details of my debit card which mCheck sent out to my bank for verification. Within 3 minutes, I got an sms from my bank confirming the activation of my account for use with my mChek account.
3. Happily, i decided to settle my Airtel landline bill using mChek. This turned out to be a very simple process since all it required was to send an SMS to Airtel with the due amount. I got a confirmation SMS with payment receipt on my mobile. This was really COOL...!! since i never had to go to a Airtel kiosk or web site to make payment.
Some of the other services which mChek currently support includes buying bus tickets, payment of insurance premiums, and paying Tata Indicom phone bills.. The web site claims to increase its coverage for extending its services to even making m-payments for buying stuff online on certain indian web sites.....! This is definitely an application worth trying !!

billbuddy.com - online bill analysis company

I came across this very interesting site called billbuddy.com and decided to explore it in detail. The web site requires you to upload your mobile bills or requests you to authorise them to access your service provider account and download bills for past couple of months. It then analyzes the uploaded bill and gives you your spending pattern. Based on your call analysis, it will review the existing mobile plans from various service providers and will recommend you the cheapest one. I tried the service though it could not download the bills directly from my service provider but did a pretty cool analysis once I uploaded my .pdf bills. The company has tied up with all major service providers - Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Tata Indicom, reliance, Aircel and Spice. It's worth trying this service. I haven't tested different scenarios to check the efficacy of its recommendations but on the whole i found the concept quite ineteresting. Do try this web site if you are not convinced with the mobile plan that you have got from your service provider.

MoCoLife - free SMS broadcasting solution from indiatimes !

Mocolife, is the latest value added services from Times Internet Ltd. It is powered by indiatimes 58888 which is the first premier SMS brand code in Indian mobile solutions space. Mocolife provides free SMS messaging service to Indian consumers. You can now do bulk SMS broadcast in India, subscribe for content, set up reminder services to remind you of important days through free SMS, gift a ringtone to your loved ones. In addition you can use short codes to define your number on MoCo Life which your friends, business associates, customers can use to send SMSs. For example if you are running a restaurant, you can define your Moco identity by a Moco keyword called "FOO". Your customers can then send SMS Moco FOO at 58888 in case your number is busy. Your customer will get an auto response that you will call him later while you get a SMS with your customer's number. Though this concept is similar to the missed call alerts that most of the mobile operators provide, but I see this concept evolving in future to transform into an individuals text based mobile identity! a concept similar to your email id. This has the potential to transform the way we brand products, services, people, places over mobile! For example instead of remembering a restaurant's mobile number I may send a short SMS to FOO and reserve space! While this is a free service for consumers but most of us will not know that when we register for this service we are explicitly signing up for receiving advertisements from the advertisers of Times Internet Ltd. This clause is mentioned at the bottom of the "User Agreement" option available on the registration page, which would be rarely seen by an average user !! A smart tactical move which is not in the best interest of we - the consumers! On the whole, I would still like to appreciate the initiative which may open up new avenues of increasing consumer reach for businesses. For people like me who are not good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries, this is definitely a great service. Give it a try here!

ngpay - The mobile shopping mall

ngpay is a smart mobile shopping mall which enables you to to make purchases and payments related to host of services. You can use ngpay services to buy air and railway tickets, cinema bookings, bank transactions, books and gifts etc. It has tied up with a number of leading players in the Travel, Entertainment, Banking and Services sector. The service is free to use. All it requires you to download the ngpay application from its web site on your mobile handset. You need to provide your mobile number on the ngpay website which in turn will send you the link in an SMS response. It pretty much acts like a tradition e-commerce web site. You can select a product or service that you want to purchase. The application walks you step-by-step through each product purchase process. Once you are on the payment screen it will ask you for payment options. You can choose to pay through credit card or debit card or even pay using ITZ cash cards. You get confirmation of your transaction over SMS and email. Overall I found the application convenient and easy to use! This is a great initiative towards using your mobile handset as a payment instrument. You can see a demo here !

Momail - World's smallest mobile e-mail now in India

Momail, a Stockholm based company has launched its popular mobile product in India today. It provides a complete email solution to consumer on his mobile phone but with a difference. It offers a unified email inbox for all your different email accounts from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc. You can send or receive emails from your mobile using momail. Currently, Momail has opened its Indian site http://www.momail.in/ for around 100,000 beta users. You can be a part by signing it online with a password momailrox on its web site. The company claims to support over 1100 different mobile models. The service is free during the beta period but will eventually be launched as a paid service. I tried the service today. Though the registration was straigthforward - register on website, provide your Mobile number, the site sends all the settings as a message to your mobile. You need to open the message and save it which results in default configuration of Momail on your mobile phone. That's really a cool feature especially for consumer market ! However, I was unable to access the emails using my phone due to connectivity issues which I reported to its customer support which was gracious enough to respond within 2 hours :) ! Do give it a try and let me know what you feel about the product.