Mobile Payment Magazine

Mobile Payments in Afghanistan

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When someone in a far-flung rural mountain village in Afghanistan wants to transfer money to family in another part of the country, there are few conventional banking options. A new text-based payment service, backed by the country’s banks and telecom providers, now offers a simpler, more convenient alternative.

In 2008, telecommunications company Vodafone and Roshan, an Afghan telecom provider, teamed up to launch a mobile-phone payroll service called M-Paisa for the Afghan National Police. Now M-Paisa has been expanded so that anyone with a mobile phone and an M-Paisa account can transfer money across the country for a small fee.

via Technology Review.

Major Mobile Operators Worldwide Announce Commitment to NFC Technology

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Many of the world’s leading operators, including América Móvil, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT Corporation, MTS, Orange, Qtel Group, SK Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor and Vodafone, have voiced their commitment to implementing Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, and intend to launch commercial NFC services in select markets by 2012.

“NFC is perhaps best known for its role in enabling mobile payments, but its applications go far beyond that,” said Franco Bernabè, Chairman, GSMA and CEO, Telecom Italia. “NFC represents an important innovation opportunity, and will facilitate a wide range of interesting services and applications for consumers, such as mobile ticketing, mobile couponing, the exchange of information and content, control access to cars, homes, hotels, offices car parks and much more.”

The market potential for NFC is significant—according to Frost & Sullivan, the total payment value for NFC globally will reach more than €110 billion in 2015 – and momentum behind the technology is growing rapidly. To address this opportunity and to provide valuable new services to mobile users worldwide, the operator community is focused on driving the standardised deployment of mobile NFC, using the SIM as the secure element to provide authentication, security and portability.

To achieve this, the GSMA will develop the necessary certification and testing standards to ensure global interoperability of NFC services. This interoperability is critical to the widespread adoption of NFC, enabling users to benefit from NFC services around the world, regardless of operator network or device type.

“As we have seen, the adoption of different approaches to NFC will only serve to fragment the market,” continued Bernabè. “By uniting around a single standardised approach to mobile NFC and by collaborating across the entire ecosystem, our industry will continue to develop the compelling services that customers demand.”

via World’s Leading Mobile Operators Announce Commitment to NFC Technology ~ GSM World.

M-PESA Wins “Mobile Money for the Unbanked” Award

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Safaricom’s M-PESA has won the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award at this year’s Global Mobile Awards 2011 which is being held in Barcelona, Spain between February 14th and 17th.

The M-PESA service was launched in March 2007. As of the end of 2010, the service had over 13.5 million customers countrywide. More than 400 organizations acceppt Bill Payment via M-PESA. The service does not require users to have a bank account; an important aspect in Kenya, where millions of people do not have a bank account. With M-PESA, account holders can buy electronic funds at an M-PESA agent and send the electronic value to any other mobile phone user in the country, who can then redeem it for conventional cash at any M-PESA agent. The awards are part of the annual Mobile World Congress which brings together players in the global telecoms market and is organized by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association).

The “Mobile Money for the Unbanked” award category recognizes innovative, sustainable, pioneering mobile money services around the world that bring low-cost financial services, through mobile, within the reach of low income groups. The award recognizes the mobile money service that has had the most significant impact on unbanked customers in developing markets over the last year.

The win extends a five times winning streak by Safaricom M-PESA at the GSMA conference in over a three year period, and is a fitting recognition of its leadership in Mobile Money services.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore exalted in the win and said it was a validation of ongoing work to expand the M-PESA service in line with meeting the needs of the Kenyan customer.

“I am delighted and congratulate the M-PESA team. This shows that we are leading the evolution of mobile money from simple transfer to a total mobile commerce solution,” he said.

The judges said in their citation: “The success story continues. This solution is enhanced further with the addition of new features and territories. It is winning ground in a way seldom seen in the mobile industry and is a true and sustained success story.”

This years entry, put together jointly with Vodafone, covered M-PESA in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, M-Paisa in Afghanistan, India and Fiji, and Vodafone Money Transfer in Qatar, bringing together the strengths and benefits of the service to the firm’s customers across the group.,

The GSMA, which organizes the awards, represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.

Since the launch of M-PESA in just over 3 years, M-PESA has bagged a total of 12 international awards in its contribution to offering financial inclusion to the un-banked in Kenya.

Source: Safaricom

Vodafone

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Vodafone Group plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world’s second-largest measured by subscribers (behind China Mobile), with around 332 million proportionate subscribers as of 30 September 2010. It operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. It owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile telecommunications company in the United States measured by subscribers

The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to “reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones”.

Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalization of approximately £92 billion as of November 2010, making it the third largest company on the London Stock Exchange. It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

Source: Wikipedia.

Paybox 3rd Generation “Mobiliser” Product Goes Live

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Paybox, a provider of mobile payment enterprise solutions, announced the paybox Mobiliser products, which allow mobile operators and financial service providers worldwide successful market entry into mobile payment and mobile commerce.

In developed markets, paybox — beyond mobile person-to-person payments — enables the creation of open, national standards for any kind of mobile payment. With paybox Mobiliser products, banks and operators in emerging markets can create low cost, financial services for the unbanked.

Eckhard Ortwein, co-founder and CEO states: “The paybox Mobiliser products coupled with our expertise enable customers to rapidly deploy, easily launch, successfully market and efficiently operate m-payment and m-commerce solutions”.

The Austrian operators A1 Vodafone and One have become leading players in m-commerce by creating a national standard based on paybox.

Paybox offers its customers following solutions:

  • paybox TopUp Mobiliser — topping up airtime or other credit accounts via handset, paying electronically or cash-based through a low-cost distribution network.
  • paybox Money Mobiliser — transferring money at home and cross-border, do highly secure online shopping, pay at the POS, pay bills and execute bank services with their mobile phone
  • paybox Brand Mobiliser — allowing companies with premium brands to act as an MVNO or VoIP-Provider
  • paybox Content Mobiliser — enabling end customers to buy content, gamble, shop, park, buy tickets for public transportation or events, pay at vending machines, track fleets

The paybox Mobiliser products are built on the patented paybox Mobiliser platform which has been developed since 1999 covering services required for transaction and payment processing in a mobilised world, namely: Authentication, authorization and reporting.

Source: PRNewswire