Shopping Through Mobile Would Be A Reality Soon

Airtel (Country largest telecom operator) has got the nod from Reserve bank of india (RBI) to collect a maximum of `5,000 from customers, which can be converted to virtual money stored on mobile phones, and can be used at outlets that have a tie-up with Airtel.

Such concepts are already been introduced in many countries like Japan, South Korea, parts of China and certain markets in Europe. India has over 650 million mobile users and all telecom companies are looking at offering a range of financial services, including the electronic version of the leather wallet, which can be used to make secure payments across a wide spectrum of goods and services covering all sectors.

Vodafone has also launched mobile money transfer services ( M-PESA) in Kenya, Afghanistan and Tanzania, and plans to introduce them to South Africa, Qatar and Fiji, enabling customers to move money using just their phone. These services are aimed at mobile customers who do not have a bank account, often because bank facilities are prohibitively expensive or customers live in areas where access to financial services is limited. With M-PESA, customers can send money safely, affordably and faster than existing alternatives methods.

Once the service will be launched in india registered customers can use their phone to transfer money to any mobile phone on any network in the country. Different access channels are used in different countries. In Afghanistan, for example, where the service is branded M-Paisa use interactive voice response (IVR), which allows customers who are unable to read and write to access the service. Money transfer is operated in real time and is used by customers for a number of purposes – for example, transfers between family members from urban to rural regions.

Service can also be used be used for several other purposes in future like-

• Customer to Business payments e.g. transfers to pay electricity bills, loan repayments or school fees
• Business to Customer payments e.g. salary or microfinance loan disbursements
• International money transfers

In fact, Bhutan Telecom has already introduced M-money or mobile money payment, which is a one-stop shop for making payments of all utility bills including telephone, electricity and water bills. Though it will take time for launch service at such a level.

As per RBI guidelines, the pre-paid value that is being loaded will be distinct from talktime. In other words, the telecom operator will not be able to create money. For the consumer, this implies, they will not be able to exchange this money for talktime. Bharti Airtel will also be mandated to deposit the money raised in a zero balance escrow account with a bank.

According to the estimate of THE ECONOMICS TIMES it is estimated that currently only 1% (8 million) of the country’s 650 million cell phone users avail mobile commerce service. This is expected to go up to 50 million by 2012.