Danish telcos join forces on mobile payments

Denmark's four network operators have set up a company to develop a common platform for mobile payments in the country.

Telia, TDC, Telenor and 3 first outlined their joint venture plan last summer but have now finally formed the company (although not yet named it) and installed Peter Bredgaard, from mobile specialist Unwire, as managing director.

Joining the JV in January, Bredgaard will oversee a three-stage project to bring mobile payments to Denmark. A timeline has yet to be confirmed.

The first phase will see Danes able to make payments via apps and SMS, with money deducted automatically from their phone bill or bank account.

This will be followed by the introduction of a system that lets users make online purchases using their mobile number and a PIN, with money automatically taken from their bank account.

In the final stage a full digital wallet will be introduced to which users can add cards such as gym membership, charge cards and coupons. NFC will be added "eventually", once the infrastructure is in place.

Says Bredgaard: "Demand for mobile payments is increasing rapidly. With the unique opportunity to bring together all telecom operators' knowledge about mobile payments, we can meet the need for user-friendly and secure mobile payments."

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Comments: (2)

A Finextra member 21 November, 2012, 11:24

1 like

So ...

That looked good, until I started to read it, and the more I read it the less good it looked. The one thing that we might agree on is that the driving force killer feature of "mobile payments" is the ability to pay for stuff at a point of sale with a mobile phone, but NFC is the feature that they are leaving until last - that must mean something.

All the rest is really just a bit of a chuckle, and those who understand mobile operators and card issuers and banking systems and EMV and merchant acquiring and public key cryptography and transaction switching and contactless payments and contactless terminals know this.

Glad to hear that they have set up a company to do all this stuff. Well, not to be left behind, so have I, and I'm not telling you what it's called either. However, we are going to implement NFC first, because we understand mobile operators and card issuers and banking systems and EMV and merchant acquiring and public key cryptography and transaction switching and contactless payments and contactless terminals.

It's about time.

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Raymond Lee - PHOS - London 22 November, 2012, 08:27

1 like

Surely, given the recent investigation on the UK MNO JV, this has to be referred to the EU Competition Commision? I cannot believe that Google, Paypal etc are happy with this and won't file a complaint.