Tag: nfc technology

Visa Europe and Telecom Italia partner for new mobile payments venture

Telecom Italia and Visa Europe have entered into a new strategic partnership in order to boost mobile payments throughout Italy. Both companies have shown a major interest in mobile commerce and have been working to break into this field for some time. Mobile commerce, however, is quite competitive and is filled with technology, telecommunications, and financial service firms that are all trying to grab the attention of consumers. It is for this reason that strategic partnerships are becoming more common in the mobile commerce sector.

Consumers show strong interest in mobile commerce

Italian consumers have been showing a strong interest in mobile payments. This is partly due to the convenience that mobile commerce represents. Shopping and purchasing products from a mobile device has become quite common among consumers that frequently travel and this trend has not gone unnoticed by Visa Europe and Telecom Italia. Both companies have, therefore, been working to develop new mobile payments services that will be available to an estimated 31 million people across Italy.

NFC-based service may not be popular with consumers

Visa Europe intends to reduce the use of physical currency at point of sale. The new service is meant to provide consumers with more security with their transactions. The service is, however, based on NFC technology, which means that only NFC-enabled mobile devices can take advantage of its features. This may be problematic, as NFC-enabled devices are still somewhat rare among European consumers. New NFC-enabled smartphones are expected to be launched in Italy in 2014, however, which may help resolve this issue.

Mobile payments expected to gain momentum from the holiday season

Mobile payments have been gaining more attention throughout Europe, especially as consumers look for more convenient ways to shop. With the holiday season fast approaching, it is expected that record numbers of people throughout Europe will be using their mobile devices to purchase products online and at physical stores.

Visa and Orange have now announced that they will be working together in this new service.

Orange, a French operator group, has now entered into a strategic partnership with Visa, the credit card giant, in order to help to speed up the awareness of using NFC technology for contactless mobile payments in the country.

The operator has also launched a smartphone based prepayment solution in France called Orange Cash.

These two companies are collaborating to make sure that rate by which consumers are discovering mobile payments based on NFC technology will be considerably accelerated in France. Both of these companies have stated that their goal is to boost awareness of the benefits of using near field communications tech for contactless transactions. They feel that France is a solid marketplace for this type of effort as it is already seeing an increasing adoption among consumers.

The companies stated that in the last half year, contactless mobile payments terminals in France have increased by 50 percent.

In the last six months, the number of terminals used by French merchants that include contactless mobile payments has risen by over 50 percent. This means that today there are more than 200,000 active terminals in the country. Moreover, there has been a tremendous NFC technology enabled smartphone deployment in the country, which ensures that a growing number of consumers actually have the necessary tech to complete contactless transactions.

The prepayments service called Orange Cash will become available to subscribers to Orange that have NFC technology compatible smartphones in Caen and in Strasbourg in the first part of 2014. This will be the first stage in a nationwide launch of the mobile payments program within the second quarter of next year.

Customers using this program will need to download the app for Orange Cash from the app store that is applicable to their device, and then simply top up the account with funds by choosing their bank card. In order to actually make a mobile payment through this service, they will simply need to tap their NFC technology enabled device against a compatible payment terminal at the checkout of the retailer’s location.