Siemens CMT (Communications, Media and Technology) has announced a new mobile payments platform that enables users to purchase goods, transfer funds, pay bills and recharge their prepaid accounts all from a mobile phone.
Unveiled at the Mobile Money Global conference in Dubai earlier this week, “walletXpress” also offers services and products in multimedia, ticketing, energy and heat and features support for NFC technology. According to Siemens, the solution is geared towards unbanked and developing countries.
Francesco Prato, sales director at Siemens CMT, comments: “There are hundreds of mobile payment solutions on the market. Most of them are IT-based. Very few are Telco-based. Siemens CMT is convinced that, in order to fully benefit from a mobile payment solution, a carrier-grade solution like walletXpress is a must.”
According to Prato, the mobile payments system does not require merchants to replace existing hardware or make any other “big investments.”
“Many [mobile payments solutions] have failed because huge investments have been made up front, with weak business models behind them to justify the investments,” said Prato, adding that what was really necessary was to partner with “tier-1” suppliers, such as Siemens. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/nfcnews-4.gif)
