Mobile operators scrap Weve

As history repeats its self, Weve, owned by EE, O2 and Vodafone, has ditched plans for a joint mobile wallet, based on NFC, which was meant to help the operators enter the £14.2 billion payment market.

In June 2005, Simpay, a different joint venture between the big telcos also relating to

Mobile operators scrap Weve

payment services collapsed after T-Mobile could not agree to terms just 6 months after its launch.

Now, the new joint venture between mobile operators meant to grab them a slice of the payments industry via smartphone NFC services has been drastically scaled back, just as Apple prepares to move in on the market with the iPhone 6.

Weve, owned by EE, O2 and Vodafone, has abandoned plans for a standard ‘mobile wallet’ service that it was hoped would make it easier for retailers and banks to work with the operators – reports the Telegraph.

In return, the operators planned to promote NFC via smartphone to their customers by pre-loading apps and implementing loyalty schemes. The joint venture would take a small cut of purchases in a mobile payments market that the Centre for Economics and Business Research forecasts will be worth £14.2bn in 2018.

It is understood that EE, O2 and Vodafone have been unable to agree on how Weve’s standard mobile wallet should operate since it was announced six months ago. They have now effectively scrapped the joint project, which was slated for launch early next year, in favour of individual apps.

It leaves the mobile operators racing to gain traction in the market in the shadow of the impending arrival of Apple Pay, an NFC service announced last week alongside the iPhone 6. Apple has made deals directly with banks and card companies in the US, cutting out mobile operators, and has said it is working on arrangements for a UK launch.

A source at one mobile operator said Apple’s move meant it would have to write off gaining a share of payments from iPhone users, who represent about a third of the UK smartphone market.

Operators are likely to focus their efforts on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Google launched its own mobile wallet service for NFC transaction in the US in 2011 but it has failed to take off, leading mobile operators to believe they can take the initiative.

EE launched its own NFC app this summer, Cash on Tap, Vodafone will introduce a similar service next month and O2’s parent company, Telefonica, is working with Monitise on mobile payments technology.

Tony Moretta, a founding executive of Weve, who worked on its mobile payments plans until his departure in January, said in a conversation on Twitter: “Operating system owners and big handset manufacturers now have the real power in the mobile world – consumers are reliant on them not mobile operators.

Apple can deliver a consistent user experience for payment on iPhones – mobile operators were not prepared to and wanted to compete with each other.”

Weve will continue other joint projects including its mobile advertising network and marketing messaging service, which are already up and running.

A spokesman for the joint venture said: “Weve’s mandate has always been to explore new commercial opportunities in the mobile commerce arena and to build products and services that make commercial sense.

“Weve has also done a great deal of valuable work exploring opportunities in the UK mobile payments space in 2014, yielding insight and developing significant intellectual property in this market.

“We continue to believe there is a great deal of potential in mobile contactless payments and we are currently working on developments where Weve can help streamline the mobile payments process.”

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