PTC to introduce mobile payments

2009-12-01

The mobile operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC), the owner of the Era GSM network, is about to launch a project which will allow its customers to pay for their everyday shopping via a mobile phone. The launch of the service, known as Minikarta Era PayPass, is scheduled for mid-December. It will be made available as a result of the operator’s cooperation with MasterCard and Polbank.
The offer will be aimed at the holders of the Polbank-Era credit card, who will be entitled to order an additional card to be attached to the mobile phone. The client will then be able to pay by means of touch free terminals. This will enable the payment of no more than PLN 50 (€12) per purchase. No authorisation will be required, and the client will receive a text message confirming the transaction.
PTC insists that the service is the first step toward the full integration of financial and telecommunications services. According to Krzysztof Dzieciol of PTC, in the future mobile phones will replace cash, payment and loyalty cards.
Contactless payments were first introduced in Poland by the BZ WBK bank, which has, so far, issued over 130,000 of them by means of the Visa and MasterCard systems. There is, however, no unified system for mobile payments, as PTK Centertel, the operator of the Orange network, is working on its own solution and two other mobile networks, Play and Plus, allow payment via SMS. This is an obstacle to the development of a large network of terminals at points of sale. Mobile payments in the Central and Eastern European region are expected to be worth $6bn by the time of the Euro 2012 football tournament, whereas the market will be worth $150bn on a global basis, according to KPMG.

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