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Nokia Money finally starts shipping after a nearly 2 year wait, comes preloaded on the X1-01 in India

Nokia announced “Nokia Money” back in late August 2009 and with it the promise to deliver a service that would let anyone with a mobile phone send and receive money using nothing more than a text message or phone call. Here we are, several days before the start of July 2011, and the Finnish handset maker has just now announced that Nokia Money is finally coming to market; India only for now. The service works thanks to partnerships with Union Bank of India, Yes Bank, and Obopay, which Nokia invested Read more

Stefan Constantinescu

Vanco Services unveils pay-by-SMS service

Provider of electronic payment solutions Vanco Services announced a new service to give clients the ability to accept payments and/or donations sent by text message. In other words, Vanco’s solution doesn’t require a high-end smartphone – any handset that can send and receive SMS will work just as well. Those unfamiliar, myself included, should know that Minnesota-based Vanco is a PCI (Payment Card Industry) Level 1 Compliant Service Provider, offering several electronic payment solutions that may be deployed individually or as a comprehensive suite. The company currently processes electronic payments Read more

Obopay, STAR Network team-up to enable real-time mobile account-to-account transfers

Mobile payments solution provider Obopay is deploying its Mobile Money for Banks solution to STAR Network to enable real-time transfers between STAR accounts. Those unfamiliar, myself included, should know that STAR Network offers transaction speeds that are not possible with Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers, which often take several days to process. With this service, financial institutions can offer a fast, secure and convenient way for their customers and members to send and receive money using their mobile phones. STAR issuers that receive STAR POS transactions already support STAR Expedited Read more

SK Telecom, KDDI and SoftBank team-up on NFC mobile payments

NFC-enabled mobile payments may be waiting for a miracle to happen for a wider adoption in the western hemisphere, but they are already being used by high-tech folks living in Japan and South Korea. Like that’s not enough, we now have SK Telecom joining forces with Japan’s KDDI and SoftBank Mobile to develop an interoperable service available throughout both countries. The three parties have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to make existing solutions — Combi Card, a financial service running off a USIM card in Korea, and the FeliCa Read more

Obopay unveils Mobile Money For Banks

Obopay, the mobile payments pioneer, which we’ve covered for quite a few times in the past, unveiled a new offering – Mobile Money for Banks. The new offering is slated to push banks and other financial organizations in the realm of mobile payments. The solution is made to allow banks to deploy their own branded mobile money service in 30 days or less. The following products are included as part of the deal: Get Paid by Obopay – Enables payments to be received for products or services, with money being Read more

Kenya’s yu unveils mobile money transfer service – yuCash by Obopay

Another big win for Obopay as they push to conquer the African market. Their “partners in crime” are local telecommunications service provider Essar Telecom Kenya Limited’s yu branded mobile network and Equity Bank, who have a large countrywide network. The service is branded “yuCash by Obopay” and it’s “positioned to change the landscape of mobile money transfer” in Kenya. Moreover, in the press release yu’s representative also said they will be working with other parties to expand the service throughout Africa, though no details were provided. Big congrats to Obopay. Read more

Obopay now has its own iPhone app

Mobile payment company Obopay now has an iPhone client. The dedicated application features include: Send money to anyone with a US phone number Send money to your kids or anyone 13 years of age or older and track how they spend the money all from your iPhone View full transaction history Receive money free of charge regardless of how many people send you money or the amount you receive Setup your account to automatically deposit the funds that you receive into your own bank account without having to manually intervene Read more

Obopay honored with World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer 2010 award

We love the mobile banking and payment provider Obopay, and perhaps more importantly, Nokia loves them — hence they’ve launched the Nokia Money service in partnership with Obopay. In that sense, I’m glad to report that Obopay has been chosen by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer 2010 for its “innovation, transformational technology, leadership and substantial long-term impact on businesses and society.” Obopay is one of 26 companies from around the world to be honored with this prestigious award, which the company will “pick up” at World Economic Read more

Video: 6.5 minute Nokia Money demonstration

Nokia Money, which was announced in August, and is expected to launch in Q1 2010, is being shown off in the video below by Waltteri Karhusari at the Nokia “Way We Live Next” conference in Finland. The UI is fairly basic, but that’s do to the demo being done on a fairly low end device. Nokia Money’s target audience is emerging economies after all. It’s safe to say that Visa’s stuff is much more impressive, but sadly their solutions are due to hit the market at an even later point Read more


3 yearss ago

Stefan Constantinescu

Video: What’s Visa working on for mobile payments?

This week in Paris at the Cartes exhibition, Visa was showing off what they’re working on for mobile payments. They demos a native iPhone application, along with a Visa application that is embedded on a SIM card. The most exciting stuff, NFC, is shown off on a shipping Nokia device. Payments under 20 EUR are just tap and go, useful when you’re in a crowded bar and don’t want to fiddle with credit cards or hard currency, while payments over 20 EUR require a tap, a PIN code, and then Read more


4 yearss ago

Stefan Constantinescu

People in Kenya can now buy flights and bus tickets with their mobile phone; I wish I was joking

While Japan has been using NFC technology to enable mobile payments for years now, the rest of the world has been lagging in terms of mobile payments. Europe, the continent that was the first to launch GSM technology on a massive scale, still hasn’t figured out mobile payments. Premium SMS doesn’t count since it is mostly used to buy annoying ringtones and wallpapers from even more annoying commercials that play around midnight on weekdays. America, land of the consumer whores, still hasn’t figured out how to make the connected device Read more

Stefan Constantinescu