Europolitan Vodafone and TietoEnator develop payment services for mobile phones

Europolitan Vodafone and TietoEnator develop payment services for mobile phones Starting next year, you will be able to pay for goods on your mobile phone. Entra, part of the TietoEnator Group, is developing a virtual payment card together with Europolitan Vodafone, and it is due to be launched in the first half of 2002. "The mobile phone is becoming an increasingly important tool in our everyday lives," says Jon Risfelt, President and CEO of Europolitan Vodafone. "Mobile payment solutions constitute a major step towards the realisation of our vision of providing our customers with services that simplify their day-to-day lives." Europolitan Vodafone will be marketing the virtual payment card and all related services, and will be working jointly with TietoEnator to market and sell the payment solution in other market segments, as well as in markets outside Sweden. The virtual card will provide customers with a simple and reliable way of using their mobile phones to pay for goods and services ordered via the Internet, both fixed and mobile. One of the keys to this solution lies in the fact that it supports micro-payments and has a so-called "taximeter functionality", which allows customers only to pay for the parts of a service that they actually use. This means that you only pay for the pages or articles that you read in an online magazine, while you pay per game when using network based gaming services. Initially, the service will mainly enable direct payments for the kind of data services that are already available via mobile phones or the Internet, such as mobile games or various information services. In the future, however, it will also be possible to use the virtual card at regular stores. The virtual payment card will be available to all mobile telephony customers, not just Europolitan Vodafone's own customers. The company will be offering customers the chance to open a deposit account or apply for a credit account with Europolitan Vodafone. Customers will then be able to access these accounts from their mobile phones, paying for various services in the same way they would use a regular payment card to pay with money withdrawn from their bank accounts. Europolitan Vodafone will serve as the intermediary for payment transactions between customers and suppliers of goods and services. The solution offers these suppliers an exciting opportunity to make the payment process both convenient and cost-efficient. "Not only will the virtual payment card function any time, anywhere, but users will also be able to monitor their account transactions on their mobile phones. With the arrival of 3G mobile telephony, a whole range of new services will become available in the market, requiring new payment solutions. The solution that Europolitan Vodafone and TietoEnator are developing will simplify the everyday lives of its users while also paving the way for new sources of income for service suppliers," says Jon Risfelt. The virtual payment card will function in existing GSM and GPRS networks, as well as in future UMTS networks. "There has long been talk of mobile phones becoming tomorrow's wallets, but we have so far seen few large-scale solutions. By combining our competence as regards financial transactions with Europolitan Vodafone's position in mobile service development, we have been able to create a payment service that is ready to be launched on a broad front," says Martin Sjöberg, Managing Director of Entra. For more information, please contact: Mikael Kluge, Director, Mobile Internet, Europolitan Vodafone Telephone +46 708 33 12 05, e-mail mikael.kluge@europolitan.se Anders Jensen, Business Manager, Payment Services, Europolitan Vodafone Telephone +46 708 33 13 17, e-mail anders.jensen@europolitan.se Martin Sjöberg, Managing Director, Entra AB Telephone +46 8 597 90 870, e-mail martin.sjoberg@entragroup.com Europolitan Vodafone is a mobile operator with a license to build 3G mobile telecoms networks. Our strength lies in our focus on developing international services, service and quality. Europolitan Vodafone employs some 1,500 people and is listed on the Attract 40 list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange through its parent company, Europolitan Holdings AB. The company's majority owner is Vodafone of the UK, with 71 per cent of Europolitan Holdings AB. Private shareholders, investment companies and pension funds own the remaining 29 per cent. The Vodafone Group is represented on 5 continents and has around 95 million customers (proportional number of customers calculated on the basis of ownership). For more information, please visit www.europolitan.se and www.vodafone.com. Entra is part of TietoEnator's Finance Sector. For more information, please visit www.entragroup.com. The services offered by the TietoEnator Finance Sector are based on strategic partnerships with its customers. The solutions are based on leading technologies and our goal is to become first a European and then a global supplier of e-finance solutions. In addition to its Internet banking solutions, the TietoEnator Finance Sector also possesses considerable skills in the sphere of payment systems and selected capital market solutions. The Finance Sector has operations in 11 countries and has more than 1,800 specialists and more than 300 customers all over the world. The TietoEnator Finance Sector is the leading collaboration partner for northern Europe's banking, insurance and finance sectors. With more than 10,000 employees and annual net sales ofE1.1billion, TietoEnator is a leading supplier of high value-added IT services in Europe. TietoEnator specialises in consulting, building and hosting its customers' business operations in the digital economy. The Group's services are based on a combination of deep industry-specific expertise and latest information technology. www.tietoenator.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/11/28/20011128BIT00700/bit0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/11/28/20011128BIT00700/bit0001.pdf