IT and Society: US mobile operators team up to displace credit cards with smartphones

7 August 2010
Source: KM.RU

Major US mobile operators Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T have agreed to develop a mobile payment system based on smartphones, which is likely to become a serious competitor for such companies as Visa and MasterCard, reports Bloomberg.

The new system will be trialed in Atlanta and three other US cities. The new mobile payment system based on smartphones is expected to displace around 1 billion plastic cards.

Mobile payment systems are already available in the U.K. Japan and Turkey. When completing purchases at stores customer may choose, whether the sum will be written off a cellular network subscriber’s personal account or a bank account, which is “attached” to this very customer’s mobile number.

In Russia there are no such technologies enabling to pay for goods and services via mobile phones, however this autumn subscribers of one of Russian mobile operators will have a chance to pay the fare in Moscow subway via their cells.