A mobile payment joint venture from the UK's biggest carriers, first announced over a year ago, today finally received "unconditional" clearance from European regulators. The move means that now Vodafone, Telefonica's O2 and Everything Everywhere (the JV from T-Mobile and Orange) can proceed developing a cross-carrier mobile payments platform -- not unlike the Isis initiative in the U.S. They say they will be getting the service "up and running as quickly as possible," although no launch dates or other specifics -- including a name -- have been announced. In other words, now the hard work begins.Given that one of the biggest pain points in mobile payments has been lack of interoperability between platforms, this is potentially a big step in helping such services grow: the idea is that with a bigger potential audience to serve, bigger merchants, banks, payment providers, developers and handset makers will be more likely to make the necessary investments in infrastructure themselves. read more..
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Unconditional Clearance-Mobile Payments-Vodafone
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Mobile Payment Service-Square Of Europe-Mobile Payments-Free Readers
With Square yet to reveal when or where it might offer its mobile payment service in Europe, and PayPal apparently still only talking with would-be partners, the door is wide open for more local players to jump in and pick up some market share. Sweden's iZettle, which often gets compared to Square, is now doing just that: today it is launching its iOS, dongle-based mobile payment service to the UK, four months after its pan-nordic live launch, and as it is preparing to launch an Android version of its product later this year.iZettle kicking off its service by giving away 3,000 card readers to small businesses and sole traders in the country as part of its invitation-only beta, which it is running in cooperation with MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club. In its still brief life, it has seen some decent traction in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, where it now has 50,000 active merchants on its network. read more..
Friday, 23 March 2012
Mobile Payments-Credit Card-Green Dot
Imagine you're walking by your local cafe, and you get a notification on your phone that you'll get a free bagel if you buy a cup of coffee. You walk inside, and make the purchase with your credit card — no need to take out your phone again. The bagel rings up as "free," and you get a notification from your bank confirming you've received the discount. All of this payments and loyalty interchange can happen over the cloud. A lot of companies are trying to get their arms around mobile payments. Many of them, trying to make your phone itself act as the credit card. Google with Wallet, Square, PayPal, American Express, everybody who's experimenting with NFC. read more..