OXFORD, United Kingdom—In an effort to reduce their administration overheads, European cell-phone operators are negotiating with some of the major retail banks about using automatic teller machines (ATMs) to enable prepaid customers to top up their accounts.
The banks said the top-up facility could appear as another option on the ATM screen, and the amount would be debited from a customer’s account as if it was a cash withdrawal. Another option under consideration is for a customer to enter a code indicating a mobile network provider, and after checking with the operator and bank, the cell phone would be recharged.
NCR, one of the principal manufacturers of ATMs, is said to be trialing a system that would allow prepaid customers to recharge their cell phones using Bluetooth. As users approach wirelessly enabled ATMs, they would only need to enter their personal identification number (PIN) numbers on their mobile devices to start transactions with the ATMs.
NCR said that, within the next three years, it plans to allow cell-phone users to print e-mails from these Bluetooth-equipped ATMs.
