O2 UK Announces Financial Services Partners for NFC Launch

Telefónica O2 UK today announced some of the companies it will work with to bring its O2 Money prepaid service and mobile wallet to market on NFC phones and contactless cards this year.

O2, which plans to become a payment service provider and issue the prepaid application itself, will work with Visa Europe, as expected, to provide the retail payment network and acceptance brand for the O2 Money service. That applies to both O2 Money applications on NFC phones and on the contactless cards O2 plans to launch in coming months.

O2 also said it would work with prepaid program operator Wave Crest, which is based in Gibraltar; U.S.-based transaction processor FIS; and wallet software provider Intelligent Environments of the United Kingdom for the O2 Money prepaid program, both on NFC phones and cards.

Plans still call for a commercial launch of the O2 wallet during the second half of 2011, said the telco. Besides NFC-based payment, O2 will also offer subscribers mobile commerce, top-ups of mobile airtime, and network-based peer-to-peer payments.

“We will have more announcements to make in coming months with different parties we’ll work with,” an O2 spokesman told NFC Times of the mobile-commerce and other additional services.

But the telco’s own O2 Money prepaid application will anchor the wallet. The telco plans to apply for an e-money license with UK financial regulators, which would permit it to store the funds for the customers’ prepaid accounts and to issue the application and cards. If by chance it doesn't get the license, O2 would also bring on an issuing partner.

But that partner would not be a major UK bank. O2 seeks to become a payment service provider in its own right, using its financial services arm, O2 Money. It had partnered with NatWest bank to issue two prepaid O2 Money cards launched in 2009, along with Visa.

The telcos said existing O2 Money customers will be given the chance to be issued the new contactless cards, expected later this year. The O2 money cards on issue today do not have a contactless interface.

While it will seek to promote the O2 Money payment application, the telco is expected to open its mobile wallet to banks for their contactless credit and debit applications.

“It’s certainly our intention in the longer term,” the spokesman told NFC Times. “We can see (for this) really to take off with customers, customers are going to want to use their existing banks.”

Rival UK operator Everything Everywhere, which plans an NFC launch this summer, is also expected to introduce its own prepaid payment service for its mobile wallet, probably based on the contactless Orange Cash cards it launched earlier this year. It is partnering with MasterCard Worldwide and UK-based prepaid payment service provider PrePay Solutions, partly owned by MasterCard, for the card launch.

But Everything Everywhere, a joint venture of France Telecom-Orange and Germany-based T-Mobile, will work with banks from the start of its NFC launch. Its first banking partner is Barclays and its Barclaycard arm.

 

HEADLINE NEWS

Australian Transit Agency to Launch Mobility-as-a-Service Trial as It Pursues Long-Term MaaS Strategy

Plans by Transport for New South Wales, Australia’s largest transit agency, to launch a trial enabling users to plan, book and pay for multimodal rides is the next step toward the agency’s long-ter

Updated: U.S. Transit Agency Seeks to Reduce–Though Not Eliminate–Cash Acceptance with New Fare-Collection System

Updated: The Spokane Transit Authority in Washington state confirmed that its new fare-collection system will include contactless open-loop payments–with a beta test planned for next October, a spokesman told NFC Times' sister publication Mobility Payments.

UK Government Seeks to Bring London-Style Contactless Fare Payments System to Other Regions

The UK government’s plan to equip 700 rail stations over the next three years to accept contactless open-loop payments is a major initiative, as it seeks to replicate the success of London’s contactless pay-as-you go fare payments system elsewhere in the country–a goal that has proved elusive in the past.

More Cities in Finland Expected to Move to Open-Loop Fare Payments

A fourth city in Finland is beginning to roll out contactless open-loop payments, with “more in the pipeline,” according to one supplier on the project, making the Nordic country one of the latest hotspots for the technology.

Moscow Metro Expands Test of ‘Virtual Troika’ in Pays Wallets, as It Continues to Develop Digital-Payments Services

Moscow Metro is recruiting more users to test its “Virtual Troika” card in two NFC wallets, those supporting Google Pay and Samsung Pay, as one of the world’s largest subway operators continues to seek more ways for its customers to pay for rides.

Ohio Transit Agency Expects Significant Revenue Loss as it Builds Equity with Fare Capping

The Central Ohio Transit Authority, or COTA, officially launched its new digital-payments service Monday, including a fare-capping feature that the agency estimates will cost it $1.8 million per year in lost fare revenue, the agency confirmed to Mobility Payments.

Special Report: Interest Grows in ‘White-Label EMV’ for Closed-Loop Transit Cards

As more transit agencies introduce open-loop fare payments, interest is starting to grow in use of white-label EMV cards that agencies can issue in place of proprietary closed-loop cards for riders who don’t have bank cards or don’t want to use them to pay fares.

Swedish Transit Agency Launches Express Mode Feature for Apple Pay, though Most Ticketing Still with Barcode-Based App

Skånetrafiken, the transit agency serving one of Sweden’s largest counties, announced today it has expanded its contactless open-loop payments service to include the Express Mode feature for Apple Pay.

Major Bus Operators in Hong Kong Now Accepting Open-Loop Payments–Adding More Competition for Octopus

Two more bus operators in Hong Kong on Saturday launched acceptance of open-loop contactless fare payments, with both also accepting QR code-based mobile ticketing–as the near ubiquitous closed-loop Octopus card continues to see more competition.

Moscow Metro Launches Full Rollout of ‘Face Pay;’ Largest Biometric Payments Service of Its Kind

Touting it as the largest rollout of biometric payments in the world, Moscow Metro launched its high-profile “Face Pay” service Friday, as expected, and predicted that 10% to 15% would regularly us

Indonesian Capital Seeks to Expand to Multimodal Fare Collection and MaaS

Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, whose metropolitan area is home to more than 30 million people, is notorious for its stifling traffic congestion. In response, the government metro and light-rail networks and now it is funding an expansion of the fare-collection system to enable more multimodal payments and to build a mobility-as-a-service platform.

Exclusive: NFC Wallets Grow as Share of Contactless Fare Payments and Not Only Because of Covid

Transit agencies that have rolled out open-loop contactless payments are seeing growing use of NFC wallets to pay fares, as Covid-wary passengers see convenience in tapping their phones or wearables to pay.