SEATTLE-Airline passengers may soon be able to access personal mobile communications applications during flights with a new subscriber identity module-card based solution from Altobridge.The solution combines Altobridge's communications architecture with a passenger's SIM card to convert seatback Inflight Entertainment Equipment (IFE) into a personal...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday passed a permanent ban on Internet access taxes after committee members agreed to debate the more controversial issue of state sales and use taxes at a later time."The Commerce Committee blazed a new trail through the mountains of taxes...
FRANKFURT, Germany-Under a new service launched in Europe by credit card giant MasterCard, mobile-phone users will be able to transfer money to other users simply by sending a text message.The service is part of MasterCard's larger MoneySend effort, which is available to the area's...
FRANKFURT, Germany-Under a new service launched in Europe by credit card giant MasterCard, mobile-phone users will be able to transfer money to other users simply by sending a text message.The service is part of MasterCard's larger MoneySend effort, which is available to the area's...
NEW YORK-A series of diverse mobile commerce announcements show the industry is still interested in the technology, with Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc., start-up Network365 and a New York candy bar store testing the waters.In conjunction with its new stores in New York, Florida...
TOKYO-Japanese operator KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular Telephone plan to offer a new payment collection service where charges for purchases through participating online shopping sites are invoiced to end users with their monthly cellular bills. The service trial will begin July 3.The service and...
LONDON-Alcatel said it has entered a cooperation with Vianet Group plc to ensure Vianet's vOpen telemetry platform is interoperable with Alcatel's mPayment application solution. The companies said they will provide operators in European countries with end-to-end solutions for m-commerce and telemetry through joint marketing...
DALLAS-Nokia Corp. announced it is continuing its mobile-commerce trial with credit card company MasterCard International through a new trial in Nokia's home base of Irving, Texas.The market trial will launch this month and will allow mobile-phone users to use their phones to pay for...
WAKEFIELD, Mass.-The Mobile Payment Forum, a standards group devoted to mobile commerce that includes many of the world's biggest credit card companies, announced it will expand into new areas including third party authentication, digital transaction records and consumer usability.The forum said it will work...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-With as many as six mobile payment "standards" competing to gain acceptance, four European mobile operators have clubbed together in an attempt to agree on a clearinghouse mechanism that would provide secure payments among merchants, cell-phone users and banks.The service will be...
LONDON-European mobile operators Orange, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile AG and Vodafone Group plc signed an agreement to form a new Mobile Payment Services Association designed to deliver an open, commonly branded solution for payments from mobile handsets.The association said the payment solution will work across...
MANILA, The Philippines-Experts expect the cellular industry in the Asia-Pacific region to generally fare better this year than last year. While the telecom industries in Europe and the United States are expected to face difficult years, with markets already overcrowded and requiring consolidation, many...
FRANKFURT, Germany-Following the exit of the company's majority shareholder, European mobile commerce company Paybox said it will shut down its consumer-oriented services-which totals 750,000 users-and will focus solely on the business-to-business market."We deeply regret this step. We are not only losing customers and merchants,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an attempt to bring some order into the chaotic and extended fight over mobile payment standards, the European Union (EU) has stepped in and said it will fund a large-scale trial of a system with the backing of Vodafone and Orange....
NEW DELHI, India-Sri Lankan operator Celltel Lanka has launched a set of secure m-commerce services on a short message service (SMS) platform.The new service called CellWallet stores encrypted electronic information pertaining to a user's credit cards, debit cards and bank accounts, and allows a...
TORONTO-Canadian company Diversinet said Hong Kong's 16 brokerage firms have seen improved productivity of 80 percent since launching an m-commerce brokerage solution in April. The service allows investors to place orders via their Palm handhelds using secure technology from Diversinet.
ZAGREB, Croatia-Croatians sent nearly 600,000 short message service (SMS) messages through an m-commerce parking service in the capital of Zagreb. Th mobile parking service is offered by parking company Zagrebparking and mobile operators HTcronet and VIPnet.The messages were sent between September 2001 and July...
ARMONK, N.Y.-Technology giant IBM Corp. released an important new product the company said allows wireless device users to seamlessly roam across a variety of disparate wireless networks-including wireless local area network, cellular, private mobile radio and satellite networks-all without ever turning off the device.IBM...
LONDON-Text messaging company Scan Mobile scored a major new outlet for its applications, announcing a partnership with European carrier Orange to offer a variety of messaging applications.Among its portfolio, Scan Mobile will offer Orange subscribers its ticketing and shopping applications, which allow users to...
WOBURN, Mass.-Positive earnings, a new contract and a new business line were among Boston Communications Group Inc.'s announcements this week.The company said its net income for the second quarter totaled $1.4 million, or 8 cents per share-well above the projected 3 to 4 cents...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an attempt to set the global standard for secure mobile payments, Visa said it will launch a fraud prevention service next year that it previously developed for Web sites. The company said that, following successful trials across Europe, the new service...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African financial services companies are reported to be using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology as a key means of delivering products and services to customers. The technology is regarded as part of a mobile vision for both end users and...
ATLANTA—Intec Telecom Systems announced it has partnered with m-payment solution provider MoreMagic to develop a solution that delivers real-time m-commerce mediation between customers and content.The new technology can: facilitate delivery of content to consumers; provide advice of charge and payment mechanism for content; permit...
MELBOURNE, Australia—As part of its expanding mobile data strategy, Telstra announced this week a three-month trial in which customers can pay for parking using their GSM mobile phones."Our customers have consistently told us they want the convenience of being able to use their phone...
