Telecom Italia and Visa Europe have signed a strategic agreement to boost the payment system for goods and services using the most popular smartphones on the market. The agreement has the objective of making the most innovative mobile payment services available to the more than 31 million TIM customers distributed throughout the national territory, thus progressively reducing the use of cash for commercial transactions.
In particular, the new mobile payment offer, built on the experience of the trials launched in 2012 in the Milan area, will allow customers to use their smartphone to carry out transactions contactless at enabled POS terminals throughout Europe. TIM will also install contactless terminals in its stores located throughout Italy.
Furthermore, through the agreement TIM and Visa will launch services to support both P2P ("person to person") payments, i.e. the transfer of money from one's smartphone to other people, and ecommerce payments to make purchases on the internet with your mobile phone.
The TIM-branded Visa card created in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo will be made available in 2014 to TIM customers on smartphones equipped with NFC technology (Near Field Communications) and developed with the same high security standards that characterize both all Visa contactless payments and the TIM infrastructure and SIMs.
The offer of contactless payments with Visa card will be the flagship service of the “mobile wallet”, i.e. an open digital wallet that TIM will commercialize to host the services of important partners such as financial institutions, merchants, transport companies and public services.
To pay for small daily expenses, such as the purchase of bus and subway tickets, coffee at the bar or newspapers, books and magazines, simply bring your smartphone close to the enabled POS terminal. Expenses exceeding 25 Euros will be made, always in contactless mode, by typing a code directly on the mobile phone.
Marco Patuano, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Italia, said: “The diffusion of SIM-related NFC solutions will be a great engine of innovation for both companies and consumers and will give a significant impetus to the mobile payments. Already today most of the smartphones on sale are NFC-enabled, by 2014 in Italy there will be over 14 million NFC mobile phones in circulation, and in less than two years, over 10% of users will make massive use of the multiple services that will be available thanks to this technology. Telecom Italia has developed a specific technological platform to ensure the security of mobile payment services that banks will enable for credit card holders. In this context, the partnership with Visa represents a fundamental step to accelerate the diffusion of payment services enabled through the mobile phone, a step that will change people's habits and will make everyday life easier for our customers".
Davide Steffanini, General Manager Italy of Visa Europe, commented: “Our partnership with Telecom Italia for payments mobile devices represents a real turning point in Italy in terms of innovation. Italy is ready for this type of service: in addition to being the number one market for Visa in Europe for prepaid products, our country has always been very prompt in adopting the most modern technologies in mobile telephony. The solutions we are developing together with Telecom Italia will radically change the way Italian consumers pay, and this collaboration will act as a true catalyst for affirming the strategy in our country as well. Visa Future of Payments split. As a market leader and a strong innovator, Visa understands the need to establish a global interoperability standard, involving mobile operators, handset manufacturers, electronic payment networks and financial institutions issuing the Visa cards. Working with the leaders of these reference sectors, such as Telecom Italia, is crucial to making all this a reality".
