back to article Bankers plot telco bypass for payments

The Payments Council has been explaining its plans for a mobile payment platform: one that doesn't leave a cut for the network operators but keeps the revenue for the bankers. The council's head of innovation has been talking to NFC World about how the platform will work, and being quite explicit that telcos won't be invited …

COMMENTS

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  1. Maurice Shakeshaft

    why is this even an "issue"?

    If I make a payment over the phone The teleco only gets the call charge.

    If I make a payment through the post The PO only gets the stamp charge.

    If I make a payment in person only the cobbler benefits.

    I'm stupid, I know, but what have I missed here?

    1. Gordon 10

      Possibly

      That the telco owns or supplies at least some of the handsets involved?

      To take your analogy further it's like the retailer who sells a book of stamps not getting a cut.

  2. DavCrav

    Easy solution

    "Elsewhere in the world, operators are still hoping to make money by charging payment services for space in their NFC handsets, or by running their own payment systems and taking a cut of every transaction, but in the UK it seems banks will make money from money while operators will make money from advertising, and consumers just have to get used to it."

    Easy solution for the networks: they block the payment methods. Although if I have to decide who I'd prefer money to go to, out of Vodafone and Barclays...

  3. Is it me?

    Doom

    I just have this terrible sense of foreboding that they are missing something important, you know how it is when a lot of bright people have runaway enthusiasm for a new technology and neglect the details.

    Security

    Capacity

    Contention

    And lots more. I'll stick to my little green bits of paper.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    maybe I'm missing the point...

    But surely making the cellular networks have to be pci compliant for just $0.03/transaction would be the event of a lifetime...

    Wouldn't this also allow/require them to restrict the types/models/firmware of devices connected to their networks because all connected devices would have to be pci compliant.

  5. Natalie Gritpants
    WTF?

    I'd prefer NFC outside my phone.

    Why does this have to be in a phone or use the phone network. I'd like a little tag on my keyring that works when I've driven to a cream-tea shop in Cornwall with no mobile coverage.

    Out of the two things that you always take when going out, which one always works? Your keys or your phone?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    please forgive my ignorance

    but I have to wonder, how will you top up your account?

    with the pre-paid service, you buy 10 quid card, you top up your phone with 10 quids and then you get to use those 10 quids. The problem is, the telco doesn't get the full 10 quids, some amount goes to the seller that sold you the card. Plus those 10 quids actually include the VAT* amount for the card. So in reality, the telco _might_ actually get 5 quids out of the 10 quids you paid for the card!

    Now when you use the NFC payment system, if you have 10 quids in the phone, then you expect to be able to _pay_ for an item which value is 10 quids! The telco will have to honer the payment of 10 quids.... but to my understanding (if the above example is correct), they never received 10 quids from you!

    so how does it work?

    * I don't know about other countries, but in country I am in right now, calls and SMSs are VATable, and all pre-paid top-up cards are VAT inclusive.

    1. James Micallef Silver badge
      Devil

      Yes, pre-paid cards are VAT-table in Europe

      You pay £10 for the card, the phone tops up with £9 credit (exact value varies depending on VAT rate of course)

      1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

        Yikes, does that mean...

        Let's see.... I think my UK PAYG phone credit is just money, VAT is charged when services are provided. But I think something funny happened around the time when the VAT rate changed.

        Presumably the UK or elsewhere kiosk that sells me a £10 phone card didn't pay £10 to acquire the card in the first place, or what's in it for them, besides getting me to visit the shop and maybe see something else to buy while I'm there.

        On the other hand, I pay 12p to send a text message, it probably costs them a lot less than that to make one.

  7. Piloti

    Three........

    "......which will be usable by customers of any network operator – except Three, which was inexplicably left out of the deal."

    Looks like I'll be getting my next sim card from Three.........

    P.

  8. James Micallef Silver badge
    Mushroom

    fixed the ending for you

    ...banks will make money from money while operators will make money from advertising, and consumers (and retailers) just get screwed either way.

    Retailers need to both install & maintain NFC kit / train staff etc AND (I'm guessing) pay 3% to the banks, same as they do for credit card payments. So they either absorb the extra cost or pass it on to me, the consumer. Ans as a consumer I do NOT want to be spammed with ads just for the 'privilege' of using NFC for payment.

  9. Fazal Majid

    The telcos should just bring M-PESA to the UK

    Kenyans, fed up with the corruption of their banks, opted massively to use their (foreign-owned) phone accounts as a means of payment.

    Any similarities to banksters in the UK not unintentional...

    1. Equitas
      Big Brother

      Interesting possiblities.......

      suggest themselves. Especially for phones with dual SIM capabilities.

  10. No. Really!?
    Go

    While the banks and telcos are squabbling with each other...

    Apple will announce a new iPhone where Apple gets all the NFC transaction revenue, leaving banks and telcos only their existing fees.

    (You may not like Apple, but wouldn't it be worth it to see bankers and telco execs cry?)

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