Wireless Wave - Spring 2008 - (Page 32)

”In Hong Kong alone, more than 10 million transactions each day are facilitated by NFC (near-field communication) systems” Helen Nierinck Analysys which is a contactless card used to pay for passage in the London underground. Some 500 participants are testing O2 Wallet installed on the Nokia 6131 NFC handset, Nierinck wrote in a recent report. The handset, like a normal wallet, will hold several cards, but in virtual form, she wrote. (The participants include Barclaycard, Nokia, O2, Transport for London; TranSys and Visa Europe.) But technology is just part of the challenge. Nierinck wrote that success for a mobile payment system “depends upon a business model that provides mutual benefits” to all the players: mobile operators, financial institutions, payment infrastructure providers and, of course, the ultimate provider of the service that consumer wants – the public train system, for example, or a retail outlet. “In practice,” she noted, “such cooperative relationships can prove difficult to sustain.” A prime example, she pointed out, was Simpay – a partnership of cell phone providers in Europe that was born in 2003 but fizzled in 2005. Simpay’s creators were T-Mobile International, Vodafone Group, Orange and Telefónica Moviles. “Simpay was meant to provide a single platform to deal with the routing, clearing and settling of payments made with mobile phones,” the International Herald Tribune reported. “The service was destined to be used mostly for small purchases of less than Â€10, or $12, but could have been used for more expensive acquisitions.” When T-Mobile decided to opt out, Simpay dissolved. “Its collapse highlights the difficulties that rivals in any industry have in coming together to promote a service or a standard that could potentially benefit all sides,” the Herald Tribune reported at the time. There are plenty of success stories, though, and in places that might be considered surprising. Such innovation is being tested and used in the Third World, where weak traditional infrastructure makes creative solutions a necessity, not a luxury. “Ironically, the developed world has fallen behind in adopting new technologies precisely because its existing systems work well,” New Dehli-based journalist Jeremy Kahn wrote recently in a Boston Globe story. “Mobile banking is less attractive in a world where there are plentiful bank branches and ATMS, not to mention Internet access for online banking.” Kenya is an excellent example of where mobile technology is helping extend financial services to people who otherwise might have trouble securing them. Communications provider Safaricom Ltd. allows people to transfer money using a mobile phone. Business Week reported last year that 6,000 Kenyans a day, including some who live in remote villages, are signing up for the service, known as M-Pesa. Safaricom was formed in 1997; Vodafone acquired a stake and management responsibility for the company in 2000. Much closer to home, a San Francisco company called m-Via is taking part in this worldwide trend. It is pulling together pieces to build a global mobile transaction network. It helps clients provide mobile solutions for their customers and citizens, some of whom don’t bank in the traditional way. “Mobile remittances will have a profound impact on the developing world by making remittances cheaper, faster, and more convenient, as well as giving the unbanked the ability to engage in cashless transactions for the first time,” explained Kruszka. “M-Via’s vision is to enable every person, whenever and wherever they are, to send and receive money, and conduct financial transactions with any other person in the world,” the company’s Web site explains. “The ubiquity of mobile phones, the fastest selling consumer device in history, provides the ideal mechanism for wherever-whenever financial service delivery.” The ultimate key to success will be achieving acceptance and enthusiasm from the public. “It’s about the consumer understanding how to use their phones to make payments, being aware of the benefits and understanding that the transactions are safe,” Nierinck said. True enough. But the technological blueprint is also important, and for that American companies are looking closely beyond our borders. The international community, especially Asia, has a big head start, and Europe and Africa are also moving forward. Their unique settings and challenges and collective successes and failures will help inform U.S. decisionmaking in the very near future. W ir e l e s s W a v e 32

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Wireless Wave - Spring 2008

Wireless Wave - Spring 2008 Contents A Letter from Our Chairman A Letter from Our President Pryor Approval The Promise of M-commerce Moving Targets Foreign Service Multiple Choice Legs, Regs, and Wireless Wireless News The Supplier’s Voice CTIA Welcomes New Members Index of Advertisers Roaming with….

Wireless Wave - Spring 2008

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