2nd December 2002
Magex Ltd., a leading provider of Person-to-Person
and Person-to-Merchant Internet and mobile payment
services today launched a new range of
mobile
payment solutions aimed at facilitating m-commerce via Interactive Voice Response,
SMS and WAP.
The Magex Managed Payments Platform now provides IVR,
SMS and WAP access to its P2P and P2M suite of products in
addition to existing web-based access.
We have always
supported the use of mobile phones for notification and identification
purposes. This new capability gives users the ability to
send funds, make payments, and complete purchases all with
the tap of their mobile phone keypad, says Josh Groves,
CEO at Magex.
This is an important step for Magex
and proves our commitment to being a leading provider of
white-label mobile and Internet payments technology for banks
and their merchant partners in Europe.
The IVR service enables users to initiate a payment by calling
a designated telephone number and keying in their password,
the amount they wish to send, and the recipient's mobile
number following voice prompts. The payment is processed
and an SMS message is immediately sent to the recipient.
In order to use the IVR service, the user must register their
mobile phone number on their account.
FastPay, NatWest's innovative person-to-person service
powered by the Magex platform, has recently introduced the
mobile payments service to its customers.
FastPay
offers consumers the ability to transfer money quickly and
effectively, says Jeremy Rudge, Head of E-Commerce
NatWest.
The mobile phone payment service lets FastPay
account holders send payments on the move in less than 30
seconds.
The SMS service enables users to initiate a payment by sending
a single text message to a designated telephone number. The
message need only contain the sender's password, the
amount they wish to send, and the mobile phone number of
the recipient. The user also has the option to include a
short message. In seconds, the payment is processed and the
recipient is notified via SMS.
The WAP service is a menu driven application which enables
users to initiate a payment, check their balance, and view
past transactions via a WAP connection. The account holder
visits the WAP site via their mobile phone and scrolls the
menu for the actions that they wish to take. For example,
to initiate a payment the user selects the
send funds option
and provides the recipient's mobile phone number, the
amount they wish to send, and any message they wish to include
in the payment. On completion, the payment is quickly processed
and the recipient is notified.
The IVR, WAP, and SMS payments modules are available individually
or in combination, so a consumer could use all three services
from the same mobile phone during the course of a day.
Magex have expanded their service to provide an extremely
versatile and timely solution to the growing need for mobile
payments in the UK and Europe says Chris Jarman, Founder
and Director of mobile consultancy Platform Mobile
Ltd.
With
the explosion of new devices that support premium content such as downloadable
games, pictures and MP3, mobile operators and merchants need flexible, inexpensive
and real-time payment solutions. Magex have recognized the diverse needs of todays'
mobile markets and have established a new industry benchmark of flexibility by
allowing
the subscriber to choose between SMS, WAP or IVR.
The European mobile industry has recently launched new devices capable of sending
and receiving snapshots and other types of multimedia. Analysts estimate over
several million such handsets will be in use by early 2003. Telecoms consulting
firm Schema projects over €10 billion in interactive mobile revenue by 2005
for Western Europe, with the UK market the largest at €2.3 billion. Datamonitor
is predicting that global revenue from mobile games will grow from €950
million in 2001 to €17.5 billion in 2006.
