Nokia Joins Mobile Wallet Initiative

Finnish mobile phone operator Nokia, along with ten more mobile operators have joined in on supporting a GSM Association initiative that aims to enable the worldwide use of cellphones for payments at retail outlets.

The list of new companies to join the 14 mobile operators that initiated the project in February includes KPN, Maxis Communications, mobilkom austria, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, SKT, Vodafone and Wind.

Handset manufacturers that are already backing up the project include Samsung and LG. Both of the companies are planning to participate in the first trials that are scheduled for October.

The initiative will enable customers to use a phone as a wallet or access card by simply waving it over a wireless reader. In some cases, the input of a pin number into the phone will also be required.

Such services are already being used throughout Asia, but it is to be expected that in other parts of the world the introduction and adoption of the service will take much longer and will need much more support from renown companies.

Nokia, along with Samsung and LG are to embed a wireless chip into their mobile products, while MasterCard, also involved in the initiative, will provide a cheaper and faster way of paying wirelessly. There's no telling whether using a mobile phone to pay is a good idea or not. One of the first downsides of it would be the security, or lack thereof.

But as technology grows up to the point that it has reached in Japan, where more than 12.6 million customers already have their credit cards embedded in a chip in their mobile phones, more users will start to consider using their phone for payments of any type.