GSM Association Opts for 'Pay-Buy Mobile'

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Worldwide use of mobile phones for payments at point of sale is the aim of a new initiative announced by the GSM Association. 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative is a natural progression for the industry, following the GSMA's program - announced last year - to define a common global approach to enabling Near Field Communications (NFC), the technology used to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems. By embedding mobile contactless services, such as credit and debit payments, in the SIM card the mobile industry will extend the role of mobile phones in customers' everyday lives.

Fourteen mobile operators are participating in the 'Pay-Buy Mobile' initiative including: Cingular Wireless, now part of the new AT&T; China Mobile; KALL; KTF; MCI;
MTN; NTT DoCoMo; Rogers Wireless; Smart Communications; Telenor, TeliaSonera; Telecom Italia; Turkcell, and Vimpelcom. This is the biggest global approach to facilitate payment by mobile. Secure, transparent mobile payments will be made using a SIM/Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) card in mobile phones plus contactless/NFC technology. The result will be an interoperable and transparent service for mobile customers, financials institutions and the banks.

This approach will further accelerate the efforts of the major credit card companies, which developed the specifications to ensure global interoperability between chip cards and Point of Sales (POS) 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 first phase of the GSMA initiative will begin with a business model analysis followed by an end-to-end trial in Korea later this year. The trial will be led by KTF and will include all key participants in the value chain, from banks and credit card providers to retail organizations and handset manufacturers.

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