Airtel Kenya and ezetop  have announced the launch of International Top Up, which enables the Kenyan community living or working abroad to directly recharge Airtel prepaid mobile for their families back home in Kenya.
The new service will be offered in partnership with ezetop, a company based in Ireland that enables relatives abroad to support friends and family back home by delivering airtime credit directly to mobile phones.
David Shackleton, Chief Commercial Officer at ezetop said, "Our partnership with Airtel Kenya means that for the first time Kenyan people living abroad can now send airtime directly to the Airtel mobile phones of their loved ones in Kenya. This innovative service allows people to stay in touch effectively. We are encouraging people to send recharge today to their friends and family".

ezetop will provide this service to the Kenyan communities worldwide from over three hundred thousand (350,000) retail stores. You can also send top up instantly on www.ezetop.com.

Airtel Kenya Chief Operating Officer Shivan Bhargava said "This new service is in line with Airtel's vision of providing innovative mobile services to our customers as it delivers a simple and practical customer benefit that facilitates communication with families and friends. It offers Kenyans in the Diaspora the freedom and peace of mind to stay connected with their loved ones wherever they are in Kenya."

The service works as follows:

International Recharge – recharging a phone in another country

Step 1: Sender goes online, uses his phone or a retail store

Step 2: Sender selects the country, mobile operator name, amount and phone number to top up

Step 3: Ezetop's system then requests the relevant mobile operator to top up the recipient and send the receiver a confirmation SMS

Step 4: The receiver can use the airtime to Call, SMS, browse

Online recharge – recharging a phone/buying airtime via web interface

This is a white label solution that allows operators to provide online recharge service. Subscribers will therefore be able to buy and pay for airtime from anywhere in the world

Phone to Phone recharge – Allows subscribers to top up other lines via USSD

Step 1: Sender dials the USSD string i.e. ***amount# e.g. *111*+254733123456*500#

Step 2: Ezetop sends the request to the receiver's operator to top up the destination number

Step 3: The receiver can use the airtime to call, SMS, browse