TietoEnator-owned Entra and Europolitan Vodafone are to roll out a wireless payment service which delivers credit for payments over mobile phones.
Subscribers will be able to transact payments over their mobile phones via a virtual payment card, irrespective of whether these are based on GSM, GPRS or UMTS technology. The service is primarily intended to create a functional payment method for digital content but it can also be used for the payment of physical goods.
The solution will be rolled out by Europolitan Vodafone during the first half of 2002. With 95 million customers on five continents, Vodafone operates one of the world's leading brands. In positioning itself as a payments intermediary for wireless consumer transactions, the company is treading firmly on banking territory.
Entra and Vodafone say that the co-operation agreement includes the joint marketing and sales of the solution to potential payment intermediaries within other market segments, including banks, and in markets outside Sweden.