The Global Mobile Awards announced today at the GSMA conference in Barcelona, Spain that Savannah based Urban Planet Mobile was selected as the Best Mobile Learning Innovation. Joining other winners such as Angry Birds, Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson, and Google, the GSMA noted Urban Planet’s “simple, genial yet exciting innovation; based on sound business models to reach the underserved markets.”
Urban Planet’s winning entry provides audio English language lessons to over 94 million PT Telkomsel subscribers in Indonesia via SMS. These English lessons were been developed specifically for mobile delivery and are capable of reaching 90% of handsets. Each lesson is sent as an embedded audio link that downloads as a ringtone, providing the opportunity for subscribers to daily hear English spoken by a native speaker. Because these lessons are priced affordably for the market and available to virtually every person, subscribers study anytime, anywhere. Within 3 months of launch, an astonishing 70,000 plus Indonesians subscribed to the service.
Congratulations to CEO & President Brian OliverSmith, who was on hand to accept the award, and the rest of the Urban Mobile Planet team.