Telefonica Deutschland will make available a smartphone-to-smartphone direct money transfer service and a digital wallet from mid-February, saying it is investing early in new growth markets of the future and is pushing ahead with the expansion of its financial ecosystem at high speed.
Telefonica says it will be the first network operator in Germany to enable its customers to perform mobile-to-mobile transfers using the ‘mpass Geld senden’ service. This service will enable money to be transferred from one mpass account to another by only needing mobile phone numbers.
The use of the transfer service will be handled securely by the mpass app and will require the users to log in using their user name and password. The process of sending money will be free of charge.
Users will need to select the field ‘Geld senden (Send money)’, enter the recipient number, amount and an explanation or message for the transfer, then complete the payment. The transfer will be performed practically in real time, so both the sender and recipient will be able to see the transaction after just a few seconds. The user will be able to obtain a list of all transactions via the app.
The transfer service will be available to customers who have signed up to use mpass in shops and have installed the mpass app. This is possible with mobile phones using the operating systems Android and iOS. Users will also need to perform a one-time registration process using the Postident procedure. The launch of the ‘mpass Geld senden’ service is planned for mid-February.
With O2 Wallet, Telefonica will offer a digital wallet that customers will use for contactless payment at shops accepting PayPass payments in Germany and around the world. A smartphone with NFC support and a corresponding NFC-capable SIM card will be used for the digital wallet.
To use the digital wallet and protect against abuse, users will need to enter a PIN. The NFC SIM card, on which all of the payment and security data will be stored, will provide additional security.
The launch of O2 Wallet is planned for mid-February in the form of a ‘friendly user test’. Here, customers volunteer to participate and their experiences are fed back into the continued development of the electronic wallet. O2 customers with a NFC-capable smartphone, either the Samsung Galaxy Ace2 or S3, and who have ordered the free NFC pack with a NFC-capable SIM card are eligible to take part.
Telefonica says it will be expanding its wallet service to include additional applications and functions such as other payment cards, vouchers and loyalty schemes. The first bank will shortly be joining the wallet scheme, allowing the integration of a digitalised credit card.
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