Nokia Joins Visa in Trial of Mobile Payment System

Nokia, Nordea and Visa International are to pilot the world's first Electronic Mobile Payment Services based on dual chip technology. The first customers in the Helsinki area have already received mobile phones that can be used for making mobile payments with an inserted Open Platform chip card issued by Nordea

The Electronic Mobile Payment Services (EMPS) project is distributing 150 specially designed mobile phones to customers in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Customers can make purchases through their mobile phones and pay using a Nordea issued plug-in size chip card which resides on a special chip card reader inside the phone. Visa Electron transactions can be done by using this additional chip with WIM (Wireless Identity module) application.

The main goal for this joint initiative is to develop rugged and functional technology for mobile commerce business. The project tests the viability of the dual chip concept in this real life pilot. In the beginning of the pilot phase, the EMPS initiative will involve two Finnish merchants, the Internet-based grocery store Ruoka.net, and the movie theatre Kinopalatsi. Based on the outcome of the pilot, the project will be able to submit valuable information to various mobile commerce fora and standardization bodies, such as the MET consortium and the Mobey Forum.

The mobile commerce concept tested in this project, is called dual chip. The dual chip concept consists of a chip card that can be issued by a bank and a GSM SIM card. In the pilot, the chip card which accommodates WIM application, is inserted into the WAP enabled mobile phone, providing the customer with an integrated payment functionality. WAP is used as a transport layer, and the wireless authentication and signature method is based on WAP and WIM specifications. The dual chip concept is compatible with the recently announced preferred payment architecture by the financial industry-driven forum, the Mobey Forum."

Posted to the site on 25th September 2001