An ambitious plan by the UK's three largest mobile phone operators to create a mobile payments system has come a step closer to reality, with plans finally submitted to the EC for approval after months of discussion. However, the plan faces fierce opposition from fourth market competitor, Three.
Everything Everywhere, the joint venture of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and O2, which is owned by Telefónica, are planning to create a platform that would allow customers to pay for goods using their smartphones, either through contactless terminals in shops or over the internet. Customers can also collect coupons, buy tickets and access other services. The joint venture, code-named project Oscar, hopes to create an alternative to ventures such as Google Wallet, which is expected to launch in the UK this spring.
Barclays last month launched Pingit, a service that allows the customers to transfer money to anyone via a mobile phone, and had more than 200,000 downloads within the first two days. Other UK banks are understood to be looking at similar services. Visa and Mastercard are also investing heavily in mobile payments technology.
Visa took a 15 per cent stake in the Mobile Money Network, a rival payments platform that is backed by Carphone Warehouse and works with retailers such as HMV, Goldsmiths and Thorntons. Visa expects about half the payments it handles to come from mobile services by 2020.
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