Sprint and eONE Global Announce Plans to Create First Interoperable Mobile Payments Network in the U.S.
Seeking Other U.S. Operators to Join This Network; Extending eONE Global's European mCommerce Initiatives
biz.yahoo.com
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. and NAPA, Calif., May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sprint (NYSE: FON PCS) and eONE Global, an innovator in emerging payment technologies and an affiliate of electronic payments leader First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC), today announced that they have signed a letter of intent setting forth plans to establish a mobile payments network in the United States to enable consumers to make purchases and payments with their wireless devices.
Sprint, which will be the founding member of a standards and marketing entity for the mobile payments network, and eONE Global will actively seek other U.S. operators to join them in developing this mobile payments network.
This news comes just weeks after an announcement by Europe's largest mobile operators, Vodafone Group Plc and T-Mobile, which outlined similar intentions to launch an interoperable mobile payments platform and whom also are working with eONE Global.
Sprint and eONE Global will provide a trusted end-to-end purchase and payment experience that is convenient, secure, and user-friendly for both consumers and merchants. The companies believe that a secure and easy-to-use payment solution for the purchase of goods and services via a mobile device will be a key driver for consumer and merchant adoption of the mobile payment system in the U.S. Wireless customers will simply store their personal details and preferred payment options -- including credit cards, debit cards and stored value accounts -- in a virtual wallet, and choose which payment method to use when making payments via their mobile phone, similar to undertaking a transaction from a conventional wallet.
"Sprint applauds the efforts of eONE Global to launch an interoperable payments platform in Europe," said Charles E. Levine, president of Sprint's PCS division. "We are pleased to be working with eONE Global and First Data on launching the first interoperable mobile payments network in the U.S. and are committed to making it a success."
"Mobile operators are in a great position to establish a standard for mobile payments given their consumer relationships," said Garen Staglin, President and CEO of eONE Global. "We believe the timing is right to invest in building this network with Sprint and other mobile operators with the goal of accelerating mCommerce in the U.S."
eONE Global's subsidiary, Encorus Technologies Limited, will supply the underlying technology for the open standard platform including multiple channel access, authentication, routing and settlement of transactions, while at the same time leveraging First Data's processing scale. First Data currently provides payment processing for 2.8 million merchant locations worldwide. Sprint and eONE Global expect Encorus to provide the U.S. mobile payment network with its PaymentWorks mobile payment software, which is an open standard, and is currently being rolled out across several mobile network operators in Europe.
Both Sprint and eONE Global envision a gradual migration of mobile payment applications starting with micro-payments for mobile Internet purchases and retail micro-payments, and eventually macro-payments at the point-of-sale. The solution will provide for multiple payment options, including traditional credit and debit cards. In addition, smaller purchases may be billed direct to a customer's telephone bill, to a stored value account presented by the operators, or to other new micro-payment alternatives.
"Mobile payments is an area of significant untapped opportunity -- not just in market building or cost-of-service reduction, but particularly in creation of profitable partnerships that leverage the expertise of both carriers and financial institutions," said Edward Kountz, senior analyst of the mobile financial strategies practice at TowerGroup. "The single greatest catalyst for this process lies in the creation of interoperable, standards- based platform solutions that enable a variety of payments, across multiple operators and geographies."
TowerGroup predicts that the number of mobile premium content customers will continue to rise rapidly, reaching 118 million users in Western Europe in 2005, 145 million users in Asia-Pacific, and 22 million users in North America. It is estimated the total value of the mobile digital premium content market will rise from just over $2 billion in 2001 to $48.51 billion in 2005. |
