AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Partnership, Mobile Payments, and a Cashless Society

Visa Responds to Launch of ISIS

"I remain highly confident in Visa's long-term growth and innovation strategy, including our plans to continue work with our partners to accelerate the adoption and usage of mobile payments," writes Bill Gajda, the company's head of global mobile product, in a post on the official Visa blog.

November 19, 2010

Near Field Communications World - In a post on the official Visa blog, Bill Gajda, the company's head of global mobile product, has responded to the official announcement this week that AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have partnered with Discover Financial Services and the US arm of UK bank Barclays to introduce commercial NFC mobile payments services in the US through a joint venture named ISIS.

In the post, entitled 'Real innovation in mobile payments', Gajda refers to a blog post at Forbes.com by veteran mobile industry analyst Bob Egan as well as to a profile in Forbes last month, which NFC World reported on here, in which Gajda explained that Visa is seeking to partner with a wide range of mobile payments innovators.

Here's what Gajda has to say:

After ISIS was announced on Tuesday, Forbes.com ran a blog post by Bob Egan in which he claimed that current mobile banking offers are "somewhat lackluster," and that there is an absence of "real innovation in payments." Respectfully, I must disagree. Mobile payments are — without question — highly innovative, rapidly evolving and, perhaps most importantly, on the threshold of being rolled out broadly across the United States over the next 12 months. But don't just take our word for it: a recent magazine edition of Forbes also published a feature by Lee Gomes, highlighting Visa’s mobile payments innovation. In the article, Gomes writes:

"It's… possible for the phone itself to replace a card, with the number that's ordinarily embedded in a card's magnetic stripe transferred to a radio-signal-emitting microchip inside the phone. A new breed of "contactless" systems is slowly being introduced, usually in high-volume operations like McDonald's or part of the New York City subway. You authorize a payment by holding your phone next to the unit; Visa is pushing the new system hard."

In addition to mobile technology like contactless payments, Visa's open network has enabled 15,700 financial institutions and tens of millions of merchants around the globe to deliver payment services to consumers. We believe the open network is well-positioned to support secure and globally interoperable mobile payments. As he covers in the feature, during our conversation, Gomes and I discussed the strength of Visa's network:

"Visa is also selling its bona fides as a partner to insurgents rather than try to compete directly. As Gajda makes the Silicon Valley startup circuit, he emphasizes the size of the Visa network and its decades of experience fighting fraud, the scourge of electronic-payment systems everywhere. 'This is a train you want to be on board,' he says.

"His best argument: the sheer complexity involved in moving money from a buyer to a seller electronically. It might be easy to build an iPhone app that lets you enter in the phone number of a co-worker you want to pay back for lunch, a common promise in the new mobile-payments world. But then someone has to do the intricate behind-the-scenes data processing that makes sure the card isn't stolen, the people involved aren't scammers, the payer's account has the necessary funds and the actual money transfer happens quickly and without a glitch."

Our collaboration with leading financial institutions like US Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co, and JP Morgan Chase, and partners DeviceFidelity and Monitise highlight true innovation in mobile payments. Rest assured, the US is about to make a big leap forward in making mobile payments a reality. I remain highly confident in Visa’s long-term growth and innovation strategy, including our plans to continue work with our partners to accelerate the adoption and usage of mobile payments.

Telcos Partner for Mobile Payments in U.S.

November 16, 2010

Near Field Communications World - AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless announced a partnership that aims to bring a national mobile payments networks to U.S. consumers in the next 18 months. Dubbed ISIS, the initial focus will be on building a mobile payment network that utilizes mobile phones and near field communications technology to make point-of-sale purchases.

Michael Abbott has been named as Chief Executive Officer of ISIS. Formerly with GE Capital, Abbott is a veteran financial services executive with experience in the payment and technology industries. In a release from the venture, Abbott says ISIS will create a mobile wallet that could be used for payments, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes.

ISIS is working with Discover Financial Services’ payment network to develop an mobile payment infrastructure for the joint venture. Barclaycard US, part of Barclays PLC, is expected to be the first issuer on the network, offering different mobile payment products.

The venture will enable mobile payment and commerce services using near field communication technology. NFC uses the same technology standards as contactless payment cards. It wasn’t immediately known what form factor ISIS would enable payments with. There are a variety of options, including stickers and microSD cards as well as handsets, but there are limited handsets in circulation.

The ISIS site can be found here.

Report: China to Become Leader in Mobile Payments by 2013

November 18, 2010

Near Field Communications World - Celent has released a new report stating that China will soon lead the worldwide mobile payments market with 410 million users by 2013, according to finextra.com.

China already boasts more than 740 million mobile phone users as of 2009, making it easily the world’s largest mobile market. However, mobile payment has so far penetrated this community at a rate of only 10%. According to the report, this rate will jump 48% year-after-year until 2013.

Additionally, Celent says the number of contactless m-payment users will skyrocket to 400 million by 2015.

Celent’s report examines China’s three major m-payments players - mobile operators, banks, and third party companies - and cites their newfound cooperation as a major catalyst in the predicted m-payments boom.

Celent analyst Hua Zhang says,

“Partnerships with banks are very important for vendors who want to enter the market. Currently, the best business model in the Chinese market focuses on cooperation between operators and banks. Mobile operators and third party payment companies are also strengthening their cooperation with the banking industry for increased success.”

Read more here.

Discover Begins Rollout of Contactless ZIP Cards, Stickers

November 30, 2010

Near Field Communications World - Discover Card announced that it has begun issuing Zip contactless credit cards and stickers to its customers.

Discover’s Zip is a new payment solution that enables consumers to simply touch a payment device - in the form of either a plastic card or a sticker that can be attached to a mobile phone or any personal item of their choosing - to a Zip-enabled contactless reader to make a payment.

Acccording to Discover, there are currently more than 100,000 U.S. merchant locations offer contactless readers that accept Zip transactions at the point-of-sale, including quick service restaurants, gas station and convenient stores, retailers, pharmacies and public transit agencies.

Select Discover Card members began receiving contactless cards and stickers in the mail on November 15, with a larger scale rollout (based on consumer request) slated for January 2011.

Bank of America to Roll Out m-Payment Stickers, Contactless Debit Cards

November 23, 2010

Near Field Communications World - Bank of America has announced plans to issue contactless stickers to its credit and debit card customers next year, according to American Banker.

The new stickers can be attached to mobile phones and other device to enable contactless mobile payment at the point of sale. The bank also announced that it will begin issuing contactless debit cards in addition to its contactless credit cards.

Bank of America says that offering contactless debit cards and payment stickers is another step toward its goal of delivering more convenient, more secure and faster payment types to its customers.

U.S. Bank to Test PayWave Contactless m-Payments

November 16, 2010

Near Field Communications World - U.S. Bank is partnering with DeviceFidelity, FIS and Monitise to introduce contactless mobile payments via Visa’s PayWave technology to its customers.

U.S. Bank is one of the first major card issuers in the United States to pilot this technology, which enables customers to conduct transactions with a wave of a smart phone.

The solution leverages DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD or its specially-designed iPhone case (In2Pay iCaisse). FIS and Monitise developed the application that enables customers to make mobile purchases and access account information.

U.S. Bank employees in multiple states will begin testing this month, and plans are underway to introduce it to select customers next year.

U.S. Bank has been at the forefront of innovative mobile payment solutions. Last month, the company launched a full-suite mobile banking solution with bill pay capabilities for prepaid cardholders, which it claims is the first of its kind in the prepaid marketplace. It was also the first large American bank to test the Visa Money Transfer person-to-person mobile payment service, and was one of the first banks to test the Visa Micro Tag, an early contactless mobile payment device.

DBS Launches Mobile Payments Pilot

November 29, 2010

Near Field Communications World - Some 1, 000 DBS customers with StarHub mobile plans will be the first in Singapore to use the near field communications for mobile payments.

The trial will begin in December 2010 and will last for eight months. The project, which was collaboratively organized by DBS Bank, EZ-Link, Gemalto, MasterCard and StarHub, will involve adding an N-Flex solution enabling to turn conventional handsets into NFC-enabled mobile phone without any change to the device.



The N-Flex solution functions on SIM cards across multiple mobile handsets helping to accelerate the ubiquity of handsets supporting NFC. The conforms to the Single Wire Protocol as endorsed by the GSM Association. 



The NFC trial user will then be able to make payments with their mobile handsets at all merchant outlets that accept the MasterCard PayPass or the ez-link card, as well as on public transportation such as buses and trains. 

The trial will involve a group of participants who will receive an electronic mailer from either StarHub or DBS Bank that contains instructions on how to register their participation online.

Pilot participants will then be required to visit the StarHub Customer Service Centre at One Raffles Place (OUB Centre) or designated StarHub road shows to have the Upteq N-Flex device inserted and mapped onto the SIM cards of their mobile handsets before they can start making payments with their phones.

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