Tech News Beats

Surfing the net was a luxury once upon a time. When surfing at a browsing center used to cost anywhere between Rs 80 – 100. I remember paying around that sum at CMC center, Silchar, Assam in 1999. In Bangalore I remember paying Rs 40/hr in the early days. But later when I moved to Ulsoor, surfing used to cost Rs 30. The first low cost surfing I experienced was in Delhi in the summer of 2002. They used to offer Rs 15/hr then. And there used to be even discounts depending on time like happy Hours. I heard in Delhi most of the browsing centers offer Rs 10/hr. In Bangalore still in many browsing centers charge Rs 20/hr. Through there are few place which have come down to Rs 15/hr. But Rs 10/hr is very rare or unlikely. Its been a long time I have been to any browsing center. Well, hourly based browsing center was never going to meet my appetite. So I went for a broadband connection in 2006 after I bought a desktop.

I took a BSNL connection after availing a Airtel connection failed. As there was no point left in the hub in my area. BSNL claims 256 KBPS but you may get a download seed of upto 40 KPBS and upload spead of as low as 15 – 20 KBPS. In urban areas internet penetration is increasing but still the density is low. Most working professionals surf the net while they are in office. I can say this because of the traffic fluctuations. During weekends traffic will be at its low, particularly Sunday. As on Sunday all offices are closed including Indian offices. Now a days browsing is not just limited to computers. It has now moved on to mobile phones. If you have GPRS enabled mobile phone, you can browse on your mobile phone.

Financial transaction involving sending and receiving money perhaps the most important aspect in business and personal life. So we always for easy and faster ways in this regard. Today I will show how you can do this.

Banks have come up with the concept of mobile banking for quite sometime but how about receiving and sending across spectrum. Here, comes a startup company, Obopay, headquarted in Redwood City, California, USA.

How Obopay works?

Obopay requires you to sign-up using your bank account information. Once you sign-up, you will receive a secret Mobile Personal Identification Number or MPIN ( generated by your BANK). This PIN number will be necessary whenever you send or receive money using Obopay. After a transaction, Obopay intimates both the parties.

Obopay has three options of usage, SMS, Obopay application and mobile web browser on your mobile phone.

The SMS option works with any mobile phone. One has to send sms in various formats to 56161.

Obopay application is available as a free download. However, to use this application you would require a cell phone which supports GPRS connection and it should be activated.

The third option is to access the mobile website of Obopay at wap.obopay.in. To access this site you will have to send an SMS ‘Obopay’ to 56161 to get the username and password. Read more ….

Is Obopay secure?

It seems secure. As you would need to use the secret MPIN number for sending or receiving money, it should not affect you even you lose your cell phone.

Obopay has tied up with Yes Bank in India and one can avail Obopay’s service at any Yes Bank branch.

How much does it cost?

It is free while receiving money. But you will be charged for sending money.