Ericsson, one of the world’s largest supplier of infrastructure equipment, has launched “Ericsson Money Services”. Not the most creative name in the world, but it’s powerful none the less. With Money Services your operator, local bank, or anyone looking to offer people the ability to pay for things via their mobile phone, simply has to call up Ericsson, sign a contract, and boom, you can start moving money around. “A new market is opening up consisting of consumers whose first meeting with banks will take place over a mobile phone and who may never own a plastic credit card. People who may never enter a bricks-and-mortar bank now have the opportunity to “walk” into a virtual bank using their phone. They will also benefit from more reasonable fees for routine transactions such as transferring funds,” said Semir Mahjoub, Head of Ericsson Money Services.
This may or may not surprise you, but operators don’t really build networks and billing systems, rather they pay other people to do it and then resell you the service. It would be a remarkable waste of time if each and every operator around the world hired a team of software developers to implement a mobile payment solution. Apple, Google, and Nokia, are all building their own mobile payments solutions, or at least they’re allegedly doing that, so what’s an operator to do in order to compete? If you’re AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, you get together and form a joint venture called Isis, but how about smaller operators in smaller countries? That’s where Money Services kicks in.
They’ll soon be a day where we’ll all be able to pay for our groceries using either SMS or a tap of our smartphone. It’s already reality in Japan, and in Africa with M-Pesa, but Europe and America have to just wait. Patiently. Forever.