A mobile payment trial conducted in the Spanish city of Sitges has indicated that supermarkets are the most popular locations for the participants to use their mobile wallets.
The trial, launched in May by Telefonica O2, La Caixa and Visa, has seen 1,500 existing Movistar subscribers provided with NFC-enabled Samsung TouchStar handsets. The users have been able to make payments in more than 500 shops with the handset's SIM being linked to the trial participants' existing La Caixa bank accounts.
The SIM cards inside the handsets were provided by Visa and included the 'Cartera Movistar' application for making contactless mobile payments.
The trial concluded last week although the three firms involved said they were now considering extending the tests to other Spanish cities.
Separately, Alcatel-Lucent said that its Youth Lab--a research arm limited to those born between 1977 and 1998---has found that almost 90 per cent of this age group would happily pay a monthly fee for a mobile phone wallet, mainly for the privilege of not having to queue for movie tickets.
Those involved in the survey said they were most interested in purchasing movie tickets, checking bank balances, public transport ticketing and collecting electronic coupons.
However, a third of the 200 participants--which were spread over 10 countries--had prior experience of m-payment services having already used their handsets to buy bus or rail tickets, and almost the same figure to pay for parking.
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