The Digital arm of Spain-based carrier Telefónica clearly sees opportunity in the mobile payments space, on Thursday announcing investment in, and a strategic agreement with, m-payment firm Boku.
Ahmed Al Mehyas, General Manager for Emirates Data Clearing House (EDCH), owned by operator group Etisalat, talks to telecoms.com about the pressures on operators in the roaming sector as well as opportunities in the mobile finance space. Al Mehyas also talks about his vision of integrating the mobile number with a variety of social services.
Financial services provider Visa Europe said Wednesday that it intends to take a 15 per cent stake in the Mobile Money Network (MMN) – a joint venture between Monitise, Best Buy Europe and Carphone Warehouse, and telecoms entrepreneur Charles Dunstone (as a private investor).
Ericsson and MTN Group have co-launched m-wallet services in the Middle East and African regions, marking the first time an operator has adopted Ericsson’s converged wallet offering.
Service revenues or fees from m-commerce transactions are expected to reach $37bn by 2016, bolstered by mobile remote payments for physical goods and services and international mobile money transfers. These two elements together will be worth over $25bn in 2016, accounting for two thirds of the total m-commerce market, according to statistics released this week.
Payment and banking services provider Visa said Tuesday that it has certified NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung, LG and RIM for use with its PayWave mobile payments application. The PayWave application is installed on a secure SIM card and allows users to make payments at points of sale using a contactless payment terminal.
Sweden’s mobile operators are the latest carriers to band together and form a mobile payments joint venture. Investment amounts have not been revealed, but Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 will each own 25 per cent.
Cost of living through an economic slump? Ridiculously high. Getting consumers to part with their hard earned cash with nothing but a wave of the phone? Priceless. You can almost hear the *tap; kerchings* echoing throughout the industry as our plump but ever hungry financial institutions and payment providers continue their foray into the mobile market.
Payment processor Visa has launched a mobile banking product to serve consumers in developing nations. The company said that its Prepaid Mobile offering will provide an open platform for existing mobile money systems.
Financial services provider Visa Europe has invested £24.7m in mobile payments platform Monitise, giving the latter a greater European presence. Monitise is also consolidating its position in the US by buying out its partner in its US operation.
A new MVNO has launched in the UK, targeted exclusively at the African migrant community, claiming to be the first player to launch prepaid mobile credit transfer over SMS between the UK and Africa. The service effectively allows African callers to reverse charge calls to the UK.
Google’s mobile wallet venture has become a commercial reality, although it remains very much in its infancy. A trial was announced in May and, at present, the service is supported only by the Samsung Nexus S 4G (WiMAX) handset on the Sprint network in the US, although the retail side is supported by the MasterCard PayPass network
Google’s entry in the mobile phone hardware market with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility seems to be the outcome of the company’s desire to acquire the 17,000+ patents that Motorola holds and compete more effectively with Apple and other smartphone/OS vendors. The acquisition will however, not only have an impact on the handset market but possibly will also have a big impact on the mobile services market. In particular, this may help Google to accelerate the growth of the m-commerce market.
While mCommerce implementations are relatively new, successes such as Safaricom in Kenya, paybox in Austria, Compass Bank in the United States, mpass in Germany and others provide a solid set of lessons learned for mobile operators, enterprises and financial institutions.
It’s coming up to that time of year again readers, if it wasn’t for the News of the World scandal keeping the papers busy we’d all have to survive on a diet of the Beckhams’ latest offspring and volatile potato vodka. But it’s money that keeps the world going round and the subject of filthy lucre is still hot property in the mobile market.
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