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What’s the news from the MEF community? Here’s your weekly round up of all the latest announcements from MEF members including product launches, partnerships, research insights and more…

digi.me unveils landmark ‘internet of me’ deal in Iceland

Iceland has become the first country in the world to give its citizens control of their own digital health data.

The government has partnered with ‘internet of me’ specialist digi.me to drive the project. It will let citizens have instant access to their own data inside the digi.me app on their devices.

Data including prescriptions and medications, vaccinations, allergies etc will be available via an API developed by Iceland’s Directorate of Health. The project is being managed by The living lab, run by digi.me’s partner Dattaca Labs.

Julian Ranger, Founder and Executive Chairman of digi.me, said: “This is a significant moment for us at digi.me… Iceland will lead the way in showing these benefits to a watching world wanting a privacy-enabled solution that allows us all to do more with personal data.”

The next step will extend the deal to financial and wearable data.

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Bango powers DCB payments for Amazon in Japan

UK-based mobile payments specialist Bango is working with Amazon to let customers of KDDI (au) and NTT DOCOMO pay for physical goods from the phone bill.

Carrier billing is already popular in Japan, and this move will greatly increase the range of products that can be charged to the phone. KDDI and NTT DOCOMO cover 75 per cent of all mobile subscribers in Japan.

“Internet usage in Japan is mobile-first, with billions of dollars in online purchases charged to Japanese consumers’ phone bills,” said Ray Anderson, Bango CEO. “The Bango platform ensures global retailers can offer these customers the trust and transparency they want from a payment method, and can deliver this at scale.”

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Eskimi unveils programmatic marketing suite for operators

Social network Eskimi has enhanced its Data Management Platform (DMP) with new elements that will help telcos target users more effictively.

The new marketing suite can target by end-user data consumption and frequency, type of network and more. It means that an operator will be able, for example, to advertise high value data plans at users who typically consume a lot of data.

“Operators always want to sell the highest value data products to their own consumers and acquire the most profitable customers from the  competition. With this current data on Eskimi DMP, this becomes possible”, said Vytautas Paukstys, CEO of Eskimi.

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OpenMarket teams with Ecrio on RCS

OpenMarket and Ecrio are working together to showcase the potential of RCS A2P messaging to brands in the US.

The partners have already completed a proof of concept demonstration of IoT (Internet of Things) use cases running on T-Mobile’s network.

RCS is ‘SMS 2.0’ – a richer form of messaging that supports message delivery, read receipts, video, pictures, and GIF sharing.

“We are thrilled to be working with Ecrio and T-Mobile to bring RCS A2P messaging to businesses and consumers,” said Jay Emmet, General Manager for OpenMarket. “Brands are clearly responding to RCS and we are excited to help them deliver higher-value interactions and superior customer experiences.”

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SAP and Accenture joins forces on digital innovation

Long-standing strategic partners SAP and Accenture have pledged to work together on machine learning, analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) projects.

The co-development program will include intelligent analytics solutions delivered by Accenture Digital and powered by SAP Leonardo.

It’s the latest step in a process that began 18 months ago to fast-track clients’ digital journeys toward becoming intelligent enterprises.

“Every CEO in the world is focused on digital innovation,” said Bill McDermott, chief executive officer of SAP. “With SAP HANA and SAP Leonardo, we are alone in delivering the power of in-memory computing together with a rich combination of modern digital technologies.”

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BANDAI NAMCO chooses DOCOMO Digital for m-commerce

Japan’s historic games publisher BANDAI NAMCO has announced a global partnership with DOCOMO Digital to accelerate growth in new markets.

The aim is to ‘explore new sales channels, compete in emerging markets and drive monetisation of games using alternative payment methods’.

Specifically, this includes the co-launch of HTML5 based mobile games that DOCOMO will be will offer to its operator network. It will also target unbanked customers with DCB payments.

Hiroyuki Sato, CEO of DOCOMO Digital, said: “BANDAI NAMCO has constantly delivered innovative games and we are delighted to partner with them to enhance mobile gaming experiences and payments for users.”

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