MTS and SaskTel, two provincial Canadian telecommunications companies, now allow their customers to pay on their phones.
The Canadian financial institution, TD Bank Group, is the first one to bring mobile payments to MTS and SaskTel.
Including these two newcomers to the payments industry, Canada now has five mobile networks that allow Canadians to pay on their phones: Bell, Rogers, TELUS, MTS and SaskTel. The five networks provide over 94 per cent of Canada’s wireless subscribers.
SaskTel and MTS are able to offer payments services through the EnStream platform. It works as a hub that connects Canadian banks with mobile networks. Enstream says its platform “delivers the credit, debit and pre-paid cards offered by financial institutions to wireless handsets while preserving each bank’s direct relationship with their customers through their own banking and payment applications.”
“Once SaskTel and MTS were connected to our platform, it was relatively easy for an EnStream connected bank, like TD, to extend service to the customers of SaskTel and MTS,” commented Almis Ledas COO of EnStream.
The company also confirmed that other banks will be used soon.
Canada has adopted innovative payment technology with great vigour. Five of the country’s six biggest banks – Desjardins, RBC, Scotiabank, CIBC and TD- offer mobile payment services. That means 85 per cent of Canada’s homes who bank with the five biggest financial institutions can use mobile payments.
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