Do You Accept Cellphone Payments?

beuges writes "In one of South Korea's latest efforts to establish itself as a technology trendsetter, the country's three telecom giants, major credit card companies and several banks have been working for a year to enable Koreans to pay for everything from groceries to petrol by cellphone."

Comments

Already accepted practice in norway

[evil_one666]

Mobile phones (via SMS) are already an accepted way of paying for ski-passes to cinema tickets here in Norway

Perhaps the real story here is how far behind the US is in the widespread use of mobile phone technology...

Makes sense

[Malfourmed]

Can't read the article as it's been slashdotted but the concept makes sense. Telcos are one of the few businesses which have the processing of micropayments (small amounts of money for small amounts of utility) as a core competency.

You can currently buy a Coke in Australia from a vending machine by using your mobile phone to dial the machine with the cost being tacked onto your bill. However currently this is limited to one carrier (Telstra) and of course caller ID has to be enabled for it to work.

Comissions

[jedrek]

SMSes have taken over bullshit systems like PayPal as far as micropayments in Europe go. The real problem is the telecoms. Here in Poland, their cut is at least 30%, and this is on a huge discount, massive volume number - usually it's around 50%. So my friend, who runs a service that lives off SMS payments, after taxes gets about 35% of the money his customers spend. It's a shame, almost everybody in Europe has a cell phone (or at least access to one) and it's much easier, secure and impulse-buyable then any kind of credit/debit/virtual bank system.

merging cell carriers and credit card companies...

[*weasel]

yeah... could we get a few more convicted monopolists into this system? perhaps Microsoft could build the proprietary network interface to handle all this secure data transfer and storage via passport or something...

are we just -hoping- that they decide to play nice with their fees and standards and data security?

sure it -sounds- like a good idea... wait no. it only sounds -futuristic-. it sounds like something spock would do at a vending machine. so it must be good right?

please. is swiping a plastic card so difficult?

even ignoring the added security problems of a wireless network - it just sounds unnecessary.

car keys/house keys should be next

[Schlemphfer]

Many people these days are stuck carrying around three things when they go out: a phone to communicate, a wallet to pay for stuff, and a set of keys for car and house. This is silly.

There's no reason why an infrared or bluetooth port on a cellphone couldn't be made to unlock doors and start ignitions. Think how great would it be to only need one device to communicate, start your car, and pay for whatever you need when you go out.

Up until now, the cell phone has added yet another thing to take with you and keep track of when you go out. Instead, with a bit of innovation using already-existing technologies, it could easily be the only thing you need to bring. I'd be more than happy to skip the camera/color screen/instant messaging features for my next phone -- what I really want is for my cellphone get rid of my keys and wallet.