Four European mobile telecommunications giants launched a new m-commerce
association under the imaginative name of the 'Mobile Payments Services
Association'.
The association is reportedly for networks-wide m-commerce, Spain's Telefonica
Moviles announced.
Under the alliance, Telefonica, France's Orange, Vodafone from Britain and
Germany's T-Mobile - are to seek under a single brand solutions for payments by
mobile phone compatible with each of the operators' networks, or inter-operable
m-payments, Telefonica said.
The common brand under which the London-based alliance will operate is to be
announced at a later date.
Telefonica said the idea is to provide customers with a wide range of goods and
services that can be purchased by mobile phone over a secure, networks-wide
system that the MPSA founders hope will become the standard in the m-commerce
sector.
Merchants will get access to a huge data base of international clients, while
software companies will benefit by developing new m-payment applications.
The MPSA is to be managed by Tim Jones, a former director at the bank NatWest,
and a board made up of representatives of the four founding operators.
