www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Europeans now seem to be willing to pay for goods from their phones and with the successful trial in Sweden; the continent seems to be ripe enough for SMS-based mobile payments to take off. 20% increase in sales of the seven vending machines in two Stockholm underground stations was reported where the service was trialed by the payment and messaging equipment provider, Ericsson IPX, besides boosting carrier’s ARPU through increased SMS traffic.
The commercial services in Sweden is now planned to be launched and is set to begin fresh trials in Oslo, Norway, by end March. According to Donya Ekstrand, head of marketing and communications at Ericsson IPX, the Swedish trial was successful because consumers are familiar with how SMS works, and using that technology provides a clear revenue stream for carriers.
Partner firm Mobivending, on the other hand, has shown its unwillingness to discuss how many people had used the service in Stockholm. It has also been explained by CEO Katarina Lowenberg that it was up to the carriers to discuss usage, but said that individuals spent around 50% more when paying for goods via SMS because it was more convenient than fishing around their pockets for change.