Alcatel-Lucent introduces turnkey pay-as-you-go mobile wallet platform for operators

The new Mobile Wallet Service is a software-as-a-service platform for mobile network operators that combines proximity payments, mobile marketing, ticketing, international remittances, P2P funds transfer and mcommerce services.

Touchatag MWS
MWS: An extensible mobile wallet provided to operators on an SaaS basis

Alcatel-Lucent has introduced its Mobile Wallet Service (MWS), a software-as-a-service platform that enables mobile network operators to offer their customers a wide range of mobile payments services including proximity payments, mobile ticketing, international remittances, P2P funds transfer and both ecommerce and mcommerce services.

“A portfolio of access devices for proximity payment” is supported and, via the company’s partnership with Clear2Pay, the Mobile Wallet Service also provides a full end-to-end transaction service including stored value account management, gateways to banks and payment networks plus direct links to the operator’s billing system. This enables operators who use the service to link consumers’ mobile wallets to a full range of Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards and to process transactions through a country’s existing payments processing system.

A range of mobile loyalty and couponing services are also available and operators are able to offer consumers incentives in the form of loyalty points each time they use their mobile wallet to make a payment or a transfer.

MWS has been developed by Alcatel-Lucent’s Touchatag venture, which has extensive experience with near field communication and with contactless stickers, and is delivered to operators as a turnkey solution that can also be customized to reflect the needs of specific markets. For instance, says the company, “consumers in developed countries want the convenience of paying for goods and services from their mobile phones. In growth economies, MWS can be adapted to deliver money management services via a mobile device.”

A key advantage of the Mobile Wallet Service is that operators do not need to make a major upfront investment, Anthony Belpaire, Touchatag’s general manager, told NFC World. Instead, service fees are paid to Alcatel-Lucent based on the number of active mobile wallet users the operator has recruited and on the volume of transactions made.

An Application Enablement API, meanwhile, enables third parties to develop new applications for the Mobile Wallet Service. Providers of existing card-based services, such as loyalty card programmes, can also use the API to integrate a mobile version of their offering into the Mobile Wallet Service.

“Consumer tastes and technology can change in the blink of an eye,” explains Belpaire. “Our approach allows operators to bring timely and relevant mobile wallet services to consumers, to scale with consumer demand and to dynamically add new applications.”

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