“Ricarica Wind” service enables customers to request and securely top-up their Wind prepaid accounts directly from Facebook® pages
Rome, 23 October 2012 - Wind and Vesta Corporation, a global pioneer and leader in electronic payments, today announced the launch of “Ricarica Wind” a Facebook® application that enables Wind Italy customers to top-up their prepaid accounts directly through Facebook®.
Wind prepaid customers can access the Ricarica Wind application on the operator’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Wind. The new functionality makes it easy for subscribers to top-up immediately and securely by simply entering their mobile phone number and credit/debit card details.
Users of the application (non-Wind customers as well) can also send a top-up gift to a friend who owns a Wind prepaid number, or if they find themselves running low, they can send a request to friends to top-up their account. These requests can be customized for a special occasion. All services are available today within the new “Ricarica Wind” Facebook® application.
According to Mauro Accroglianò, Mobile Marketing Director at Wind, “With the Ricarica Wind application in Facebook® our presence in social network grows, providing to our customers a new and important top-up channel.” The manager continues, “Moreover, not only is it possible for a user to top-up their own phone, but also the ones of loved ones”.
With Vesta, Wind is the first Italian operator to receive 100% transaction fraud protection for top-up orders on Facebook®. Payment and user data accessed through the social media site is fully managed and processed by Vesta’s PCI-compliant payments-as-a-service platform and remains independent from Facebook® throughout the top-up process.
“As the leading provider of direct top-up channels for mobile operators, Vesta is always looking for ways to make the experience more convenient for consumers,” said Giorgio Cordiner, Country Manager of Vesta Italy. “Social media has exploded in popularity, and we are excited to work with Wind to launch 100% secure, real-time top-ups through Facebook®.”
With more than 955 million active users worldwide and an average of 552 million daily active users*, the new application is well positioned to start a new trend of customers topping-up their mobile accounts via social networking sites.
* Facebook® statistic source: http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22
Facebook® is a Facebook Inc. trademark.
About Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A.
Founded in 1997, WIND is one of the few operators in Europe to offer integrated fixed and mobile telecommunication services and Internet services. WIND is the third largest Italian mobile operator, with 21.2 million subscribers as of June 30, 2012. WIND is also the leading alternative provider of fixed-line services with more than 3.19 million voice customers and 2.24 million broadband customers. For more information, visit http://www.windgroup.it/.
About Vesta Corporation
Vesta Corporation is the leading provider of innovative payment services for mobile operators. Vesta has processed hundreds of millions of electronic payments for a wide range of telecommunications products and services through operation centres in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Vesta’s state-of-the-art payment channels, best-in-class fraud management, PCI-compliant data security, and robust customer intelligence have proven to increase revenue and reduce costs for clients worldwide, including AT&T, Cricket Communications, Meteor, Movistar, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, Telcel, Tele2, Telefónica O2, Verizon, and Vodafone. For more information, visit http://www.trustvesta.com/.
Media Inquiries:
Wind
Gianpaolo Capasso
Ufficio Stampa
T: +39 06 8311 3700
Email: gianpaolo.capasso@mail.wind.it
Vesta
CCgroup
Daniel Lowther
T: +44 7747 636 687
Email: vesta@ccgrouppr.com