Telcos team up to promote mobile payment technology

Top managers from Hungary's three mobile communications service providers held a joint press conference on Monday in a rare display of solidarity to promote the use of near field communication (NFC) to facilitate mobile payments.
Mobile payment presents a giant business opportunity, Magyar Telekom chairman-CEO Christopher Mattheisen said at the press conference organized by the Mobile Wallet Association, established to spread NFC technology. The mobile telecommunications sector will have the best chance if mobile companies team up with banks, he added.
The technology for mobile payment must be uniform, said Győző Drozdy, advisor to the CEO of Telenor Magyarország. Service providers should compete for subscribers; they should not compete in the area of mobile payment, he added.
Vodafone Magyarország chairman György Beck said the cooperation of the companies to make mobile payments more widespread was no small thing. The three companies formed a partnership in 2009 to make mobile payment for parking easier, and today every other parking fee is paid by phone, he added.
Representatives of Szupershop and MasterCard said they expected the number of points of sale where mobile payment is accepted to see a boom next year.
OTP Bank deputy-CEO Antal Kovacs said OTP is working hard to see the number of NFC terminals grows and predicted the technology would expand faster than expected by many.
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