Press Releases

Lisbon, 15 June 2010 – Vodafone has launched an accessible version of the MB Phone service which allows blind and partially sighted people and those with low vision to make a series of banking transactions available on Multibanco ATMs from their mobile phones.

Together with Vodafone Say – software that adds voice to phone operations – the new MB Phone solution allows visually impaired people to access all the features of the service by means of text-to-speech (TTS) conversion.

Blind and partially sighted people and those with low vision will now be able to perform various operations on their mobile phones: check the balance and movements on their bank accounts, make transfers between accounts, pay utilities like telephone, water and electricity, among others.

Both applications – Vodafone Say and MB Phone – are free to Vodafone customers. To start to use the MB Phone service, customers merely need to install the application in their phone in one of the following ways: by sending an SMS with the text TMB to 12980 and following the link supplied or by calling 12980, selecting option 2 and following the link supplied.

The service supports activation of a maximum of 5 accounts, and it is possible to configure a preferred account for entering the application. Download of the application, activation of the service, menu navigation and topping up the prepaid card with the amount decided by the customer are free of charge. All other transactions cost €0.308 and each confirmation SMS costs €0.05.

Since 2005 Vodafone has offered special rates for people with disabilities equal to or greater than 80%, giving discounts up to 50% on Voice, Mobile Broadband and ADSL rates.