The newly announced mobile marketing and mobile payments joint venture between Everything Everywhere, Telefonica O2 and Vodafone in the UK is a positive move, and will enable these mobile operators to secure a position at the heart of the nascent NFC contactless payments ecosystem, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics , entitled “Collaboration Essential to Operator Success in Proximity Payments.” The report underlines the importance of successful mobile operator partnerships to reduce fragmentation, boost scale, and help position strongly against competitors, such as Google Wallet. [Read more…]