Partnership between Etisalat, MasterCard and RiM
- Subscribers of the EAU-based Etisalat network should soon be able to make mobile contactless payments using their BlackBerry Bold 9900. This device is compatible with MasterCard PayPass and has been NFC-enabled.
- Etisalat, MasterCard and RiM have partnered to complete this project.
- Etisalat’s mobile phone carriers will benefit from a mobile wallet: they will also be able to link their MasterCard (debit, credit or prepaid) card and their mobile phone to pay for their purchases. All transactions will be PIN-secured.
- The service is expected to become part of Etisalat’s ePlus platform. No launch date has been mentioned, yet, Reuters reports that the service could go live before end 2011.
- Etisalat counts 140 million subscribers in 18 countries. This telecom operator has long been getting involved in NFC-related developments (its 2009 partnership with Emirates NBD in Dubai came to an end in October 2010 due to inappropriate customer equipment). It already proposes similar services in Tanzania through its subsidiary Zantel.
- The recent launch of ePlus highlights its diversification strategy: the “all-in-one”, multichannel interactive platform encompasses fields such as leisure (audio content, games as well as other apps), account management (billing services, etc.), m-commerce and NFC technologies.
- RiM, for its part, has had to face several troubles these past weeks (stock drop, declining market share, “BlackoutBerry”, etc.). Despite these incidents, the Canadian manufacturer has announced new NFC-oriented initiatives and products and steps in its rival’s (Google) footsteps.