Smartphone users in the UK could be a few months away from having access to mobile wallet services, reveals O2 Media's managing director, Shaun Gregory. The new service will be launched as a smartphone app to enable contactless payments by the joint venture recently formed by O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere.
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Speaking at a MediaTel event, Gregory said the joint venture is at the "planning before launch stage" with the aim of providing a single point of contact for advertisers, banks and retailers wanting to become involved with m-wallet services.
The O2 UK exec said that credit card issuers are also involved with the m-wallet initiative, which is preparing to allow customers to make contactless payments through partner banks, as well as for advertiser to send offers and coupons to smartphone owners with the m-wallet app.
Gregory confirmed that the three founding operators have already made significant investments in the m-wallet service, and expects consumers to "adopted it faster than people think."
However, Harriet Williams, the digital marketing manager from Debenhams, a large UK retail chain, warned that a digital m-wallet service needs to add value for it to work, according to MediaTel. "There needs to be an added benefit for the consumer."
For more:
- see this MediaTel article
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