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Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

UK service providers must notify customers when they connect to a different network

New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.
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Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
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Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
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UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
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Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
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Opinion Articles

Monday, February 15, 2010

'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

The Mobile Wallet is gaining traction in the developing world as a means of securely receiving money sent from relatives who’ve emigrated to the developed world, needing to send money home for relatives. Once established money can be transferred in country, bills paid and financial affairs managed via the small screen of the mobile.

Ultimately this replaces the need for cash and an agent to handle it improving security, reducing fraud and lowering costs. Focus on the large unbanked population and their need is driving transaction growth and customer adoption. MCB Mobile and Fundamo have partnered in Pakistan to bring such services to a potential 90m people who’ve never held a bank account but either do or in the near future will have access to a mobile phone. Nokia announced Nokia Money and a trial in Pune, India, bringing financial services to both banked and unbanked before national deployment later in the year.

In the developed world NFC still dominates the agenda. Japan have deployed 60m NFC capable handsets into the market. However only 20m are being used for NFC. Where they are being used coupons and direct marketing is the application rather than paying for main stream goods and services. Transport related payments for parking and tolls also represent a significant niche. Retailers reluctance to deploy NFC capable POS equipment is surely a key barrier to growth. Even in Japan it is only the high volume, high speed retailers such as McDonalds that are prepared to make the investment.

A trusted brand is an important component for success when deploying mobile money services. Nokia are the number one brand of all brands in India, a key factor in their decision to start in India. MCB are a trusted brand in Pakistan whilst Fundamo are unheard of. Zain Group a Kuwait based telecoms company have secured 12m customers in 8 countries in just over 1 year from launch through partnerships with existing brands. Trusted brands in the developed world will need to work together to drive adoption.

Whilst enabling technology is well established standards are essential to ensure interoperability between different organisations and ultimately providing customers the ability to move money without limitations. Ultimately companies that have not worked with each other before need to form strong partnerships as no one organisation is in a position to provide the end to end service. Forming such strong partnerships in the face of very long lead times to yield a return on investment is providing particularly difficult in some markets and preventing growth. A strong regulator is needed to prioritise Mobile Money, mandate interoperability and provide a framework that allows all parties to benefit.

With so many companies involved in the provision of Mobile Money services the key questions that remains unanswered is “how can everyone make a profit without charging the customer more?” A partial answer is in the form of lower operating costs. However there will need to be an acceptance in developed markets among the financial industry that cannibalisation of existing services will occur and lower margins will be the result.

For NFC to be successful the top selling mobile phones will need to include NFC as standard. It’s clear the general public are not going to purchase a mobile because it supports NFC. This means mobile networks and handset manufactures will need an incentive to make the investment. Apple, HTC, Samsung, Noka, LG, Motorola to name but a few are unlikely to increase the price of their top selling handsets to include NFC without a compelling business case. Such a business case appears a long way away.

Mobile World Congress 2010

 

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