M-payment: Agreement on Single M-wallet Model in Sweden
- The joint venture 4T Sverige, gathering Swedish mobile carriers Telia, Tele2, Telenor and 3, has opted for PayEx and Accumulate to favour the development of mobile wallets in Sweden. These operators should propose an interoperable payment solution.
- The account holding and infrastructure services will be developed and operated for 4T by PayEx, while the mobile app and security features will be relying on Accumulate’s Mobile Everywhere (ME) platform.
- This payment alternative might be used in several contexts: face-to-face payment (including contactless payments), e-payment, P2P, M2M, etc. these services should be made available this summer to nearly 97% of Swedish mobile customers (or, those owning mobile phones released from 2006 onwards).
- Sweden is trying to favour the development of a local “universal” m-wallet, as in the US, UK, in France, Denmark or in Spain, where dedicated JVs have also been set up and several solutions launched (see previous Insights).
- 4T Sverige has been created in November for commercial deployments in 2012. In 2009, PayEx and Accumulate joined forces around a six-month mobile NFC pilot test with Swedish universities: these tests relied on students’ needs in term of payment and multiservice applications.
- In Sweden, m-payment is now under development: iZettle has already displayed international ambitions and new entrants have appeared: last December, Seamless, for example, has applied to patent a payment solution relying on barcodes.