Smart partners with SmartTrust

Leading mobile phone operator Smart Communications has partnered with Smart Trust, the leading developer of infrastructure solutions for secure mobile e-services, to accelerate mobile service delivery and enhance transactional capabilities.

The two companies have agreed to jointly market a mobile payment concept and integrated platform based on the success of Smart Money MasterCard Electronic, the world’s first wallet card linked to a mobile phone.

SmartTrust is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonera Corp. an international forerunner in mobile communications as well as mobile and Internet-based services and applications.

Through the development of solutions, it allows organizations within the mobile ecosystem to deliver mobile e-services that inspire confidence and convenience in the sharing and trading of online information, products and services. By supporting multiple generations of networks and mobile devices, SmartTrust is able to offer the best end-user reach possible to 160 corporate customers and nearly 60 mobile operator customers.

Smart’s mobile commerce system, of which Smart Money is a part, is now available to other operators and will enable them to provide a broad range of secure data and transactional services to their subscribers in a significantly reduced time to market.

The recipient of two international awards, Smart Money was implemented in the Philippines through a collaboration with 1st eBank and MasterCard International. Using the latest SIM card technology, Smart Money enables Smart’s mobile subscribers to make payments at fast food restaurants, arcades, movie theaters and school cafeterias that have electronic data capture (EDC) payment terminals.

Smart Money expands the mobile payment market by serving establishments that do not customarily accept credit cards. In the Philippines, over 15,000 establishments accept it as an alternative payment scheme.

Officials said Smart has developed a comprehensive mobile commerce system, which includes the Smart Money wallet card. The system provides transactional capabilities, as well as the ability to connect securely to any database. Smart subscribers can use their mobile phone for banking and payments, for prepaid top-ups, for transfers to the Smart Money wallet card as well as for wallet-to-wallet transfers and a host of non-banking and non-financial services.

The technical and implementation aspects are supported by SmartTrust using its widely accepted Delivery Platform, Wireless Internet Gateway and Wireless Internet Browser. "SmartTrust has more experience and expertise in delivering mobile service platforms than anyone else in the market," noted Ian Wilson, senior operations advisor of Smart Money.

He added: "We were very comfortable working with SmartTrust to launch Smart Money and are delighted to be collaborating in introducing Smart’s mobile commerce system to the rest of the world. We have found that our subscribers can access and use value-added SMS services with much greater ease than ever before. The upshot is that usage rates for Smart Money’s transactional capabilities are surging. Operators launching the more sophisticated GSM services such as mobile payments are well positioned both to reduce churn and open up additional revenue resources for themselves."