Following the extension of the agreement between Visa CEMEA and technology-provider Upaid, the service is to be offered to banks and operators across the CEMEA region. The service was first launched in October in Morocco with Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE) and mobile operator Méditel. The solution enables prepaid mobile phone users to recharge airtime direct from a Visa card account simply by sending an SMS/text message. Not only can consumers top up their own mobile phone, but also that of family and friends. No special handsets or technology are required, making it a truly mass-market mobile payment solution. Based on a strong customer proposition, the service is provided as a plug and play solution to participating banks and operators, which is ideally suited to the needs of many Visa members in the CEMEA region. Once customers become familiar with using their mobile phone to recharge their airtime, a much wider range of payment applications becomes possible.. Leading provider of mobile payment technology and services, Upaid is providing the technology behind the service, offering advanced platform functionality and a fully hosted service. Visa member banks simply connect into the platform once to gain access to all participating operators, and vice versa for operators. Initially contracted to partner Visa for the Morocco project, Visa and Upaid have now extended their agreement until December 2005 to facilitate wider deployment. The Upaid technology enables multiple banks and mobile operators to connect to a host platform that authenticates and processes top-up transactions. The platform interacts with both operators and banks systems to authenticate the end-user based on his MSISDN (mobile phone number) combined with a PIN used to initiate transactions. It then handles the transfer of transaction authorisation and top-up message requests between the bank and the operator.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now