Orange, Barclaycard partner on mobile payments

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Orange and Barclaycard have announced they're teaming up to develop financial and payment services for mobile devices.

The forward-looking pair said customers will be able to use their mobiles to pay for goods and services using near field communication (NFC) technology that requires them to wave their handset against a specially configured reader.

The card firm in particular will be looking to the alliance to extend its rollout of NFC retail technology with its combined Oyster or contactless credit cards.

And both companies want to expand the partnership to include other contactless services such as ticketing, transport and rewards, while MasterCard will provide the payment capabilities for the processing the mobile transactions.

Tom Alexander, Orange UK chief executive stated: “Today you pay for things by cash or on your credit card. Tomorrow, you’ll use your mobile to buy the things you want, whether that’s on the high street or the internet.”

Antony Jenkins, Barclaycard chief executive, added: “There has been a lot of talk about mobile payments and now it’s going to become a reality. I believe that all our UK customers will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for everyday items within three years.”

The mobile firm and credit card operator are aiming to target a combined customer base of 28 million with the new products and services.

As for security, the contactless technology has been developed to ensure sensitive data is encrypted in the chip for the mobile’s SIM card and communications between the mobile and service provider are secured. In addition, Orange is offering to protect access to all sensitive services through entering a secret code.

Research published last month found contactless UK adoption still had some way to go. Only 13 per cent of people surveyed had already used contactless prepaid cards, while eight per cent had used contactless credit and debit cards.

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