London-based T-Motion and Germany's Brokat have chosen SchlumbergerSema's Web integration arm, WebTec, as systems integrator of a new mobile service for WAP-enabled mobile devices throughout Europe.
The partnership follows a previous alliance between T-Motion and Brokat in November 2000 to develop a new payment suite for the European mobile financial services arena. The service will initially be available to consumers in the UK and Germany.
The merchant billing system and virtual customer card system implemented by WebTec will log all billing related transactions, perform currency conversions and check for certain account limits. Initially it will be used to process macro payments. The systems also have the added capability to process micro payments. For the operators, the systems will streamline the payment process and reduce costs.
WebTec's solution provides an aggregation function, which means that commission is not charged for each individual purchase. Each time a customer makes a purchase, the amount will be aggregated and billed to the virtual card account. Once the aggregated payments reach a pre-defined limit, the resulting amount will be transmitted to the processing network of the Financial Service Provider (FSP) and the virtual card account will be cleared via an underlying bank account or credit card.
The virtual customer card has been launched in co-operation with partners from the financial services industry. The virtual card can be extended to a standard plastic card, providing the same features as a conventional co-branded credit card if required.