While we’re all waiting for (Near Field Communication) NFC-based payments to start taking off, other methods of mobile payments such as SMS are gaining traction. There are no doubts that NFC promises new opportunities for the whole ecosystem, it’s just that it takes more time than anyone thought for the wide adoption.
Enter AcCells. This Israel-based company has a solution called AcCells mID which enables contactless payments with ANY mobile phone! The trick is to identify a mobile phone using only near field GSM signaling and authenticate is as unique to the billing servers. In that sense, no need for upgrades on user’s behalf are required and any mobile phone will work just as well. Moreover, there’s no need for change to the existing infrastructure on behalf of network operators and/or banks and financial institutions.
I find AcCells offering quite compelling, as waiting for NFC is tiresome. I know there are quite a few companies heavily investing in NFC, but if AcCells find a way to pitch its technology properly, we may see the bright future of contactless payments sooner rather than later. We’ll certainly watch carefully and next week I’ll attend Mobile Money Summit where I hope to see and hear more on the subject. Stay tuned…