GSMA Calls for Pay By Mobile Handsets

The GSM Association has called on phone makers to integrate NFC functionality into mobile handsets so that consumers can reap the benefits of mobile payment services as quickly as possible.

 

Handset manufacturers must make such phones available in the market by the middle of next year, suggested Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer at the GSMA (News - Alert), who took part in the Association’s Board meeting in Macua, China.

 

“This will require device manufacturers to make sure that the vast majority of commercially available handsets incorporate the Single

Wire Protocol (SWP) and Near Field Communications (NFC) features as standard,” said GSMA’s CEO Rob Conway.

 

The GSMA says several operator trials have already demonstrated that consumers can safely use the technology.

 

Trials are underway across eight countries involving nine mobile operators. Further pilots are planned across 14 countries by 15 mobile operators.

 

A recent report from Juniper Research also predicted that mobile money transfer and NFC transactions may account for 50 percent of the global mobile payment market by 2013.

 

In Taiwan, 40 percent of those surveyed said they would switch their monthly spending to a mobile credit card service, the Association said.

 

The GSMA is also telling handset makers to adopt the Single Wire Protocol standard, which involves a direct connection between an embedded NFC chipset and a SIM card.

 

Using mobile phones to make the payment is widely prevalent in some countries, such as Japan, where carrier DoCoMo has the market dominance.

 

And a majority of handset makers say they are already in the process of making such phones. Payment card companies, meanwhile, are working in the same direction.

 

In September, Visa revealed that it had teamed up with Nokia for creating payment-related services and applications and, last month, MasterCard announced PayPass, an over-the-air provisioning service.