SK Telecom launches hands free mobile payments and rewards

More than 100,000 customers of SK Telecom in Korea have subscribed to T Pay, a hands free mobile payment and rewards service based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology that launched earlier this month.

SK Telecom“All purchases made via T Pay are charged to the customer’s mobile phone bill. Customers aged 19 or older can purchase up to KRW 500,000 (approximately US$427) per mobile number, per billing month,” the carrier says. 65% of T Pay subscribers are in their 20s and 30s.

“Based on a BLE hands-free payment platform developed by SK Telecom, T Pay sets itself apart from other mobile payments apps/services by allowing users to make purchases without ever touching their phones,” the company adds.

“After downloading the T Pay app, users can buy items simply by saying that they want to pay with T Pay. The store POS and customer’s smartphone exchange customer and payment information via BLE communications. The cashier identifies the user through the user nickname or mobile phone number that appears on the store POS screen.

“Then the user can securely complete the payment process by entering his/her registered password on the signature pad. T Pay is also built with a barcode payment feature. It generates one-time barcodes every three minutes to ensure a higher level of security in the payment process and also encrypts all payment-related data that travels over the network to thoroughly protect customers’ personal information.”

Benefits

“T Pay not only allows users to purchase items in the most convenient way, but also in the most economical way by integrating the T Membership benefits to its payment service,” SK Telecom adds. “T Membership is SK Telecom’s customer membership program that offers special discounts at partner/member stores.

“Customers who use T Pay will receive discounts offered by the T Membership program without having to show their plastic or mobile T Membership card. As of now, customers can use T Pay at over 40% of T Membership offline partner stores nationwide and the company’s goal is to expand that figure to 90% by the third quarter of 2016.

“SK Telecom has opened a new chapter in the field of mobile payments with T Pay,” says SK Telecom’s Yun Won-young. “T Pay’s innovative features are expected to deliver greater convenience and value to our customers’ daily lives.”

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