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8th May - Nokia and a further 10 mobile operators have thrown
their weight behind a GSM Association initiative to enable
the worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at retail
outlets.
KPN, Maxis Communications Bhd, mobilkom austria, O2, Orange,
SFR, SingTel, SKT, Vodafone and Wind have joined the 14 mobile
operators* that initiated the project in February. The handset
vendors in the programme include Samsung Electronics and LG
Electronics, which both plan to participate in the first trials
scheduled to begin in October.
The GSMA’s 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative seeks to define
a common global approach to using Near Field Communications
(NFC) technology to link mobile devices with payment and contactless
systems. Together with a SIM/Universal Integrated Circuit
Card (UICC) card in a mobile handset, NFC can be used to enable
a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services,
such as credit and debit payments.
"After several fragmented initiatives, the mobile phone
industry is now uniting around a single approach to enabling
the mobile phone to be used, instead of cash or plastic credit
card, at point of sale," said Rob Conway, CEO of the
GSMA, the global trade association for mobile phone operators.
"The support of the world’s leading mobile operators
and handset manufacturers should ensure that Pay-Buy Mobile
is adopted worldwide, enabling vendors to achieve economies
of scale and consumers to eventually use their mobile phones
to pay for goods and services wherever they travel."
Mr. Conway is in Seoul this week to discuss the initiative
with Dr. Young-Chu Cho, CEO of KTF, which is leading the ‘Pay-Buy
Mobile’ initiative.
The Pay-Buy Mobile initiative will build on the work of the
major credit card companies, which have developed specifications
to ensure global interoperability between chip cards and point
of sale terminals, regardless of manufacturer, the financial
institution and location of transaction. The GSMA intends
to work closely with leading financial intermediaries to provide
the transaction solutions.
“The combination of NFC and UICC is an excellent choice
to enable the development of secure and interoperable mobile
payment systems worldwide. Nokia is committed to the specification,
implementation and introduction of NFC handsets supporting
the standardized UICC-based NFC secure element,” said
Dieter May, Vice President and Head of Nokia Emerging Business
Unit. “Nokia looks forward to participating with the
GSMA and the operator community in trials of this exciting
technology.”
“Thanks to the growing momentum behind this initiative,
we are confident that we can build a global mobile payment
infrastructure that is both highly convenient and highly secure
for consumers,” said Dr. Young-Chu Cho.
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