Nokia announces new mobile payments service

gallery

Nokia revealed a new service that will potentially allow millions of users the opportunity to conduct financial transactions on their mobile phones, without needing a bank account.

With ‘Nokia Money’, the company said that mobile phone users will able to send money to other people using their mobile number, simply by voice calls or SMS.

They could also undertake other basic financial transactions 24 hours a day, such as paying for goods, bills, or recharging prepaid SIM cards.

To support this, Nokia is creating a network of Nokia Money agents, which are retail and distribution partners where users can deposit money or withdraw it from their accounts.

Mary McDowell, chief development officer at Nokia, said in a statement that Nokia Money would be particularly useful in countries where more people had mobile phones than bank accounts.

“Nokia Money is simple to use, secure and available across different operator networks and on virtually any mobile phone,” said Teppo Paavola, head of corporate business development at Nokia, in a statement.

The service will be operated with Obopay, a company already experienced with mobile payments, and which Nokia invested in earlier in the year.

It is based on Obopay’s mobile payment platform, with ‘unique’ and newly created mobile elements. Nokia Money is also planned to be open and interoperable with other payment services.

Nokia Money will be shown to the world early next month, with a gradual rollout to selected markets in early 2010.

Email to a friend

Print this page