Nokia Money due to launch soon

Nokia is attempting to create a multi-bank, multi-operator and multi-device collaboration on mobile banking.
Nokia’s mobile banking and payment service is expected to be commercially available in its first market in Q1 2010, though no location details have been revealed yet.
According to Teppo Paavola, vice president, GM mobile financial services, Nokia cannot reveal any details until a banking partner is confirmed. It is learnt that the service requires a banking license before it can be launched.
Nokia said its target is to have 300 million active users of its services by the end of 2011; the number is expected to be 80 million by the end of 2009.
Paavola said the service will enable un-banked people in emerging markets to transfer money, top up prepaid mobile services, pay bills, carry out online transactions, and pay merchants.
Global mobile payments market is expected to be worth €18 billion by 2014 – €12 billion from emerging markets and €6 billion from developed markets.
Approaches to mobile banking so far have lacked scale and have not worked across operators and across banks.
Nokia therefore plans to drive the collaboration on an open financial ecosystem, with Nokia Money at its core. Paavola added that it has taken a long time to get all the players together, from banks through to mobile operators.
The Nokia Money application will not only be pre-loaded but could be sideloaded, or downloaded later.
Nokia will also be able to provide the physical distribution channel that is critical for the service to work. For example, Nokia handset sellers can be turned into Nokia Money agents, providing the devices, the application, and the ability to handle cash.

Nokia is attempting to create a multi-bank, multi-operator and multi-device collaboration on mobile banking, a service dubbed Nokia Money.

Nokia’s mobile banking and payment service is expected to be commercially available in its first market in Q1 2010, though no location details have been revealed yet.

According to Teppo Paavola, vice president, GM mobile financial services, Nokia cannot reveal any details until a banking partner is confirmed. It is learnt that the service requires a banking license before it can be launched.

Nokia said its target is to have 300 million active users of its services by the end of 2011.

Paavola said the service will enable un-banked people in emerging markets to transfer money, top up prepaid mobile services, pay bills, carry out online transactions, and pay merchants.

Global mobile payments market is expected to be worth €18 billion by 2014 – €12 billion from emerging markets and €6 billion from developed markets.

Approaches to mobile banking so far have lacked scale and have not worked across operators and across banks.  Nokia therefore plans to drive the collaboration on an open financial ecosystem, with Nokia Money at its core.

The Nokia Money application will not only be pre-loaded but could be sideloaded, or downloaded later.

Nokia will also be able to provide the physical distribution channel that is critical for the service to work. For example, Nokia handset sellers can be turned into Nokia Money agents, providing the devices, the application, and the ability to handle cash.

Oman telecoms stats for March revealed

Oman’s Ministry of National Economy has released subscriber figures for telecoms services in the Sultanate as they stood at the end of March 2007. Incumbent telco Omantel’s fixed line subscription base stood at 268,153 at the end of the first quarter. 84% of these were post-paid customers, with 16% taking the pre-paid Sahl service. Overall, subscribers fell 1.2% from the 271,456 (85% post-paid, 15% pre-paid) recorded at the end of 2006. Eleven new public phones were installed during the first three months of 2007, taking the country’s total to 6,841.

Subscribers of post- and pre-paid GSM services provided by former monopoly Oman Mobile Telecommunications Company (OMTC) and Qatar-backed Nawras Telecom rose by 7.8% to 1,960,053 (13% post-paid, 87% pre-paid) at the end of March this year, compared to 1,818,024 (14% post-paid, 86% pre-paid) at the end of December 2006.

Internet subscriptions to Omantel, the sole provider of internet services in the Sultanate, stood at 63,843 at the end of March 2007. Of these, 48,684 were dial-up customers, 13,917 were broadband users, 246 took a leased line and 996 were classed as ‘other’.

   

 

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