Mobile Payment Magazine

UK Mobile Operator Joint Venture Critical for Success in NFC Mobile Payments

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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…]

UK Mobile Companies Plan Mobile Payment Joint Venture

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The U.K.’s three biggest wireless operators said Thursday that they would create a mobile-payment joint venture, entering the high-stakes scramble among wireless operators, tech firms and credit-card companies to popularize a way of making purchases with the wave of a cellphone.

Vodafone Group PLC, Telefonica SA’s O2 and Everything Everywhere said their new venture would create a “mobile wallet,” which cellphone owners can wave in front of censors to pay for goods. It also aims to establish a central portal for advertisers to deliver discounts and loyalty offers to participating U.K. cellphones. [Read more…]

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.

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