Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3 have followed operators in the UK, USA and Denmark, by announcing their intention to form a mobile payments joint venture.
A statement from Telia said that cross-operator mobile payment services, offered by the joint venture, will be available by summer 2012.
The operators hope that by working together they can create greater scale, expanding the range of transactions that consumers carry out via mobile. A joint company for all types of mobile payments would make payments easier and safer for consumers, the operators said. Additionally, a cross-operator solution would enable users to change operator more easily.
The operators also said that merchants and partners will also, by working with a single cross-operator party, be subject to less administrative cost, and be granted greater security.
The joint venture is equally owned by Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3. The intention is that all Swedish mobile customers, contract and prepaid, will have access to the combined payment service by summer 2012. Recruitment for a CEO for the joint venture has begun. Telia’s statement said that there would be more information on the JV made available in early 2012.
Moves to create a similar JV in the UK have been hit with protests from 3 UK, which was not asked by O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere to join the m-commerce JV. The UK approach, if it gains competition clearance, combines NFC payment and mobile wallet services along with a cross-operator mobile advertising and marketing network. It’s not clear yet if the Swedish operators intend to go beyond a payments tie-up.
In the USA, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon formed Isis with the original intention of creating an operator-led NFC-payments and mobile wallet service. Isis has announced it will begin pilot programs in Salt Lake City and Austin next year, and just recently added that it is building relationships with three card issuers to put card services onto NFC-enabled mobiles.
In Denmark, TDC, Telenor, TeliaSonera and 3 said they would build a common platform and brand for NFC mobile payments, loyalty, ticketing and wallet services. The operators have said they would have a limited launch by the end of 2012, followed by larger rollouts in 2013.
(Thanks for Lars Aase at Accumulate for alerting Mobile Europe to this story. Lars’ blog post on the news can be read here)