Telecom Italia and Intesa Sanpaolo have made an arrangement in a bid to boost the take-up of mobile payments in Italy (view press release). Using a mobile phone with a Telecom Italia NFC SIM and an Intesa Sanpaolo Group payment card, people can make payments by waving their mobile phone at an enabled checkout.
The venture is part of a project on which Telecom Italia is working with mobile carriers to create a national system for the take up of NFC based SIM card services. Telecom Italia is offering its services as a technological enabler and will develop smartphone-based proximity payments without altering existing payment system chains.
In 2011, Intesa Sanpaolo used the Group’s Move and Pay platform to run a Mobile Proximity Payment pilot. Starting with TIM customers, the group is ready to roll out its Move and Pay application on a mass scale. The service will be provided in partnership with the main telephone companies and the international payments circuits in Italy and internationally. Move and Pay will become available via an app. Gradually more features will be added to Intesa SanPaolo’s mobile offering.
Participants at the GSMA NFC Mobile Money Summit can test drive the new Telecom Italia-Intesa Sanpaolo service. A pilot project will be launched in Milan before being rolled out nationwide across Italy in 2013. Telecom Italia has assembled a SIM based NFC services management architecture and platform for application delivery and management via its proprietary SIM cards. Intesa Sanpaolo and Setefi, the Group’s e-money company, manages NFC services via a proprietary platform that supports the process. Setefi is also working to increase the number of retailers in Italy who accept contactless payments.
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