Paper Vouchers help feed Somalians, Vouchers by SMS help feed Iraki refugees

The Opinion Page of The New York Times has an interesting article on how the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is providing Somalians with paper vouchers that they can use in shops of selected local merchants - instead of waiting in long lines in designated areas where sacs of grain are distributed.

It made me think of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria that rolled out not paper, but electronic food vouches for Iraqis, using SMS.

Iraqi families eligible for e-voucher food assistance are given a SIM card and received a text message with a code during each two-month food distribution cycle. The voucher can be redeemed in selected government shops. After each transaction an updated balance is sent by SMS.

Read more. via @JodyRanck

Local transactions by Kenya’s mobile money service, M-Pesa exceeds Western Union’s global transactions

Launched in March 2007 by Kenyan telecoms operator, Safaricom, the service which now has over 14 million users in Kenya is currently the world’s most successful mobile payments system. The NextWeb reports.

Local transactions by Kenya’s mobile money service, M-Pesa currently exceeds transactions made by Western Union globally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports. According to the IMF, “M-Pesa now processes more transactions domestically within Kenya than Western Union does globally, and provides mobile banking facilities to more than 70 per cent of the country’s adult population.

Read full article. via Jody Ranck Summify. Image from CGAP.

Afghan Farmers to Repay Loans with Mobile Phones

Afghanistan based mobile network, Roshan has expanded its mobile banking service, M-Paisa so that members of the Eastern Region Fruit Growers Association (EFGA) can repay loans to the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF). Cellular News reports.

The ADF is a program launched by the Ministry of Agriculture aimed at proving Afghan farmers with access to credit.

... One of the factors constraining loan payments is the distance between rural households and financial institutions; currently, farmers travel long distances to make payments in person. To bridge this distance, approximately 500 farmers, as part of a pilot program, in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, will use M-paisa to make loan repayments, on their mobile phone.

Read full article.

Mobile payments looking at turbulent times

While the mobile-payment players acknowledge that partnerships are necessary for long-term viability, many are gearing up for some chaotic times.CNet reports.

The lynchpin for where mobile payments is heading lies with a technology called near-field communication, which allows you to wave your phone or card in front of newer checkout terminals to make a purchase. NFC has slowly moved into credit cards and a few handsets, and the technology is slowly making its way into new point-of-sale terminals.

But there are differing views on how quickly NFC will hit critical mass, informing a different range of strategies.

Dan Schulman, who is the head of enterprise growth for American Express, believes that it will take two to four years before it becomes widely adopted. As a result, the company has opted to focus on its own Serve digital wallet and partnered with Verizon Wireless to offer services such as payments made by entering a user's phone number rather than a separate account.

Schulman said the first phase of its partnership with Verizon Wireless is set to launch in November, with an expanded set up capabilities to launch next year.

Read full article.

Mobile Phones Helping To Fight Stillbirths In Africa

Though rare in the Western world, fistula affects more than 2.5 million young women and is a debilitating condition that causes millions of stillbirths across Africa. JustMeans reports.

Some of the reasons are women are not aware that they can be cured and crucially can't afford the bus fare to hospital to get treatment.

It is this travel cost problem that was noticed by Vodacom, Tanzani'as biggest mobile phone network. Last year it started to make a difference by using its mobile phone money transfer social innovation service, M-Pesa to text-message the bus fare to women who are affected.

Read full article.

Pay as you go by SMS solar power makes energy cheaper

Pay as you go is a common way of paying for calls on your cellphone. Now the idea could help make solar power a more realistic option for families in Kenya and other African countries. New Scientist reports.

The system, called IndiGo, consists of a low-cost flexible plastic 2.5W solar panel that charges a battery. This is connected to a USB mobile phone charger and an LED lamp that provides around 5 hours of light from one day's charge.

Developed by solar energy firm Eight19, based in Cambridge, UK, IndiGo costs $1 a week to run, though the unit itself must be leased for an initial $10 fee. Users add credit by buying a scratchcard that they validate by sending a text message from their phone.

IndiGo is being trialled in Kenya and will be tested in other countries in the next few months.

Read full article.

Visa to launch mobile money transfers

Visa says its mobile repayment service could revolutionise how we borrow or lend to our mates. The Guardian reports.

Visa this week launched a new mobile-to-mobile service where borrowers can repay money instantly to your phone.

The credit card provider says that the service could revolutionise how we borrow or lend small amounts from, and to, each other. There will be no need to tap in sort codes and account numbers. The money can simply be transferred to anybody listed in your mobile phone address book.

The drawbacks? First, you have to have an Android-based smartphone (not an iPhone), and download the app. Second, you won't be able to do this until next year. What Visa has launched this week is the facility for individual banks to start marketing their own money transfer services over the Visa network.

Read full article.

USAID Grants to Create a Mobile Banking System That All Afghans Could Use

In 2002, fewer than 200,000 people in Afghanistan had access to telephones. Today, some 15 million Afghans use mobile phones and a full 85% of the population lives within the combined network coverage of the four major telcos. Cellular News reports via USAid Blog.

This technological leap connects Afghans to each other and to the economy in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. And the mobile phone now opens up a world of possibilities for finding solutions to some of the challenges that Afghans face every day.

One important use that is quickly becoming a reality in Afghanistan is the creation of a nationwide mobile financial services sector – using mobile phones to transfer money safely and instantly, reducing the need for cash and giving millions of Afghans who may never see the inside of a bank the ability to use their handsets to conduct basic financial transactions.

Three USAID grants totaling just over $2M, are meant for the development of applications in this field and to begin to create a mobile banking system that could include all Afghans.

Watch video on Afghanistan’s emerging mobile money sector.

A First Look at PayPal’s Strategy for Challenging Visa and MasterCard at the Register

For the first time today, PayPal demonstrated how it intends to provide payments to physical retailers as the race heats up to make wallets and clunky metal registers obsolete. All Things Digital reports.

PayPal had said it was going to launch pilot projects later this year, but this is the first time it is discussing how it will approach the digital market and how it will defend itself against incumbent payment providers, like Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and new entrants, like Google and San Francisco-based Square.

PayPal set up four user scenarios that are intended to disrupt the way we pay for things online and in stores today, using a variety of technologies.

What stood out was that none of the scenarios required merchants to adopt new infrastructure or buy new terminals. Likewise, customers won’t be required to upgrade their phones or have certain bank accounts.

Instead, PayPal users (of which there are 100 million worldwide) will be able to pay by entering a phone number and a pin code at the existing payment terminals, or by swiping a PayPal-issued card that’s not associated with a bank and does not have an account number printed on the front.

Read full article.

Kenyans use mobile phones to send drought aid money

Jane Wangui Wainaina makes less than $10 a day serving hot food in the slums, but she still donated part of her income to help Kenyan famine victims by using a mobile phone banking service that executives say has helped raise millions of dollars. USA Today reports.

I felt a lot of sympathy for the people dying of hunger when we are eating," she said, leaning over to check that the cracked surface of a cheap mobile phone correctly showed her donation of $3.50 to the Kenya Red Cross. "I have been deeply shocked by what I have seen in the newspaper and on television, people dying from the famine. That's why I sent the money."

Wainaina used a mobile phone banking service called M-pesa, which allows people without a bank account to instantly transfer money between phones anywhere in Kenya. More than 50 countries now have such services, including Afghanistan, where it's being used to pay police in far-flung outposts.

Read full article. Image from The Independent.

Visa vs.Google Wallet in mobile payments

The digital wallet wars have begun. And credit card giant Visa and search behemoth Google are likely to be among the first to face off in the market as they each try to convince consumers to ditch their real wallets for ones that store credit cards and other information on their cell phones. CNet reports.

... While several other companies are also planning to launch digital wallets and mobile payment systems, Visa and Google will be among the first companies whose applications will hit the market in the next few months. Google is expected to launch its Google Wallet by the end of the summer. And Visa will be out with its yet-to-be-named digital wallet sometime this fall.

Read more.

Verizon, AmEx, And The Race To Control The (Possible) Billion-Dollar Mobile Payments Industry

An interesting read from Fast Company on how carriers and companies are competing to dominate the mobile payment system.

PrePay to Represent a Quarter of USA Cell Phone Accounts by Year-End

Prepay accounts will account for a quarter of USA accounts by the end of this year, according to the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC).

According to new data released by the NMRC think tank, about three out of five new wireless subscriptions in 2010 were for prepaid cell phone service -- a margin of more than eight million new prepaid subscriptions versus just under new 4.8 million postpaid subscriptions.

Read full article.

AmEx Dials Up Mobile-Pay Plans

American Express Co. is pumping money and technology into a fledgling company that wants consumers to pay for purchases by using their mobile-phone number. The Wall Street Journal reports.

AmEx is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is the lead investor in a $19 million financing for Payfone Inc., a New York start-up.

"The phone number is the most ubiquitous identification in the world. Using that as a way to check out means it can be used on a global basis," said Rodger Desai, co-founder and chief executive of Payfone.

The deal represents the latest effort for AmEx to position itself for new forms of payment. The company, which built a reputation on exclusivity and is best known for catering to affluent customers, is seeking to ready itself for an anticipated explosion in mobile payments.

AmEx also is seeking to attract younger customers, who ultimately are expected to be more comfortable paying for products with their phones rather than swiping a credit card.

Read full article.

As Phones Become Wallets, Many Have Hands Out

The New York Times in a lengthy article on mobile wallets and the players involved: mobile phone carriers, banks, credit card issuers, payment networks and technology companies - all vying for control. And how now, the pieces are finally starting to fall into place.

In Haiti, Cell Phones Serve As Debit Cards

The past year in Haiti has been marked by the slow pace of the earthquake recovery. But the poorest nation in the hemisphere is moving quickly on something else — setting up "mobile money" networks to allow cell phones to serve as debit cards. npr reports.

The systems have the potential to allow Haitians to receive remittances from abroad, send cash to relatives across town or across the country, buy groceries and even pay for a bus ride all with a few taps on their cell phones.

Larousse Dorcent runs a small grocery store from a shipping container in a dusty slum above the Haitian port city of Saint Marc. Pigs and chickens wander freely through the neighborhood. It looks like a place that technology forgot — except that for the past two months, customers at Dorcent's shop have been able to pay by cell phone.

Dorcent punches a code into his own phone. Instantly he gets a message showing that he has 41,000 gourdes, or just over $1,000, in his account.

Dorcent says he likes that customers can pay from their phones straight to his.

"The first good reason I can give is when you're handling a lot of liquid cash, it's also being handled by a whole lot of other people throughout the country," he says. "And these days, with cholera, it's safer to not be in contact with currency that's making its way throughout the country."

What's happening here in Saint Marc is a test program for the T-Cash service that is being launched by the phone company Voila.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Looking to cell phones to deliver aid in Africa - Workers in Niger are testing a system that allows people to store credits on cellphones and transfer the money to vendors to buy things like millet and rice.

-- Food vouchers on Cell Phones for Syrian refugees - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an electronic food voucher pilot project to aid 1,000 Iraqi refugee families in Syria.

-- Mama Mikes, offers mobile vouchers to Kenyans and Ugandans - Mama Mikes is an online store catering to Africans who live abroad. The virtual online store allows them to purchase gifts (chocolates, flowers, text books, electronics...), vouchers (food, electricity), and services (airtime, tuition) for their family, friends and loved ones based at home.

Buying rice with your cell phone - Mercy Corps, is providing food for people in St.-Marc Haiti who have taken in earthquake survivors. The US government-financed program will be pushing a button once a month, and $40 will automatically go into each person’s cellphone savings account — redeemable at local merchants for rice, corn flour, beans or cooking oil.

iPhone 4 gets stickers in Japan that make mobile payments

According to TUAW, Japanese carrier SoftBank is offering Sony's FeliCa payment system for the iPhone 4.

The system includes an NFC-enabled "seal" that affixes to the back of the iPhone 4 and is compatible with the official Apple bumper case.

From the carrier's press release, the system functions independent of the iPhone, so you do not have to install specialized software for the system to work.

Read full article.

Consumers Prefer Operator Billing to iTunes, PayPal Accounts

Consumers prefer operator billing for mobile content purchasing, according to analysts at Strategy Analytics.

In a new report authored by Paul Brown, the firm asked consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe to rate their interest level for several different mobile payment options.

Surprisingly, operator billing came out on top, even over the use of pre-registered accounts such as iTunes or PayPal and over the use of credit cards/debit cards.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Buying Rice — With Your Cell Phone

Nicholas Kristof in an op-ed piece for The New York Times, writes of his first-hand experience of buying good with his cell phone in Haiti.

Mercy Corps, through a United States government-financed program, is providing food for people here in St.-Marc who have taken in earthquake survivors. The standard method would be to hand out bags of rice, or vouchers. Instead, Mercy Corps will be pushing a button once a month, and $40 will automatically go into each person’s cellphone savings account — redeemable at local merchants for rice, corn flour, beans or cooking oil.

I took one of these phones and walked into a humble little grocery shop with no electricity — “Rosie Boutique,” named for the owner’s little daughter — and became the first person to make a cellphone purchase there. I typed the codes into my phone, and then both my phone and the store’s phone received instantaneous text messages saying that the transfer was complete. The food was now mine.

“It doesn’t get any cooler than this,” said Kokoévi Sossouvi, the Mercy Corps program manager. She’s right — and the technology isn’t just cool, but could be a breakthrough in chipping away at global poverty.

Related programs:

-- Looking to cell phones to deliver aid in Africa - Workers in Niger are testing a system that allows people to store credits on cellphones and transfer the money to vendors to buy things like millet and rice.

-- Food vouchers on Cell Phones for Syrian refugees - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an electronic food voucher pilot project to aid 1,000 Iraqi refugee families in Syria.

-- Mama Mikes, offers mobile vouchers to Kenyans and Ugandans - Mama Mikes is an online store catering to Africans who live abroad. The virtual online store allows them to purchase gifts (chocolates, flowers, text books, electronics...), vouchers (food, electricity), and services (airtime, tuition) for their family, friends and loved ones based at home.

AT&T Will Let Customers Buy Digital Music, Movies with Phones

AT&T announced a deal today with mobile-payments company Boku that allows subscribers to buy music, movies, news stories, and other digital goods by typing in their phone number instead of using a bank card or PayPal account. Charges will show up on the customer's phone bill. Business Week reports.

Boku, a San Francisco-based startup, and rivals such as Zong have gotten the bulk of their earnings from virtual-goods sales on Facebook applications, where low production costs let developers make money even with the carrier fees.

Read full article.

Beijing citizens can soon use cell phones to pay transit fares

Mobile phones can be used as transportation cards to pay for public bus and subway fares in Beijing starting next month, China Unicom announced on Monday, reports People's Daily Online.

China Unicom's has already launched pilots for its mobile payment services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing starting this May, and the full-scale program will be formally launched in November. It will also be promoted in other cities nationwide gradually.

Read full article.

PayPal mobile payments surge nearly 650 percent

More consumers used their mobile phone to make purchases and compare prices on Black Friday than ever before, according to data reviewed by Dow Jones, reports mocoNews.net.

Some amazing numbers:

-- PayPal said mobile payments surge nearly 650 percent, compared to last year.

-- Mobile searches jumped to about 200,000 this year from 5,000 on Black Friday in 2008.

Read full report.

Using a Cellphone Number to Pay for Goods Online

Two online payment start-ups, Zong and Obopay announced this week that customers can now link their credit or debit card numbers to their cellphone numbers on Zong and Obopay’s Web sites. Bits Blog reports.

Then, when they are shopping for digital goods on certain Web sites, they simply need to enter their 10-digit phone number to buy something instead of being re-directed to a separate Web page and entering extensive credit card information.

... Eventually, they hope to have enough customers to convince merchants that people want to use their cellphone numbers to pay for real goods. Then, the idea goes, Zong or Obopay could be a payment option on e-commerce sites, just like using a credit card or PayPal is today.

Read full article.

Ericsson pitching SMS payment system at online newspapers

According to The Guardian, Sweden's Ericsson is expanding its SMS-based Web Pin Opt-in mobile payment system as a platform to drive payments for web content.

With IPX, when customers encounter a paywall, they enter their mobile phone number on the web page and are sent an SMS text message with a four-digit PIN code. The PIN fee is taken from users' mobile carrier bill and, when entered back on the web page, gives them either one-off access to individual articles or longer-term access as part of a subscription deal.

There's no pre-registration of banking details or anything, the only information you need to give is your mobile number.

Swiss daily Le Temps used a similar system for years. It was just great, fast and efficient.

Wallet of the future? Your mobile phone

An interesting read from CNN on the future of mobile payments and why it's slow taking off in the US.

Mobile phones in the United States will be able to make electronic payments, open doors, access subways, clip coupons and possibly act as another form of identification.

These futuristic uses for phones are becoming reality in countries like South Korea and Japan, which typically are ahead of the United States when it comes to mobile technology.

... Gartner Inc., a technology research company, issued a report in May saying mobile payments will increase 70 percent in 2009, to 73 million people worldwide.

By 2012, the company says, 190 million people will make mobile payments.

Still, that adoption rate is relatively low. Only 3 percent of people in North America are expected to conduct mobile payments in 2012, Gartner says.

Read full article.

[via Raphael Hunold on Twitter]

Amazon unveils 'TextBuyIt'

Amazon TextBuyIt, which launched late Tuesday, lets people text the name of a product, its description or its UPC or ISBN to 262966 (that's "Amazon" on the keypad) from anywhere their cellphones work — including from inside physical stores.

If Amazon stocks matching items, the service returns two results at a time. Shoppers can immediately buy one of the first two the selections by texting back the number "1" or "2," or they can ask for more by texting the letter "M."

New TextBuyIt customers will be prompted to enter the e-mail address associated with their existing Amazon account plus a shipping zip code. The service then calls them and walks through the checkout process using an automated voice system. Shoppers get confirmation by text message and e-mail.

From there, the customers can check on order status on Amazon's website."

[via USA Today / Associated Press]

New A's Ballpark to Be High Tech

If Cisco Systems Inc. has its way, the Oakland Athletics' new ballpark in Fremont will be the stadium of the future.

Fans will swipe electronic tickets stored on cell phones. Bleacher bums will view instant replays at their seats with laptop computers. And digital advertising displays will be able to switch images based on the buying habits of the people walking by through data embedded in their cell phones.

... Wireless access is becoming an increasingly common feature at ballparks, but analystssaid a park built with the reported features would be a big step forward.

[AP]

Japan e-money providers agree on common terminal

The providers of four major electronic money systems in Japan have agreed to adopt a common reader/writer terminal from next year. The agreement should open the way for wider acceptance of the systems and improve convenience for users. Infoworld reports.

"All four companies operate systems that are based on the same basic technology -- Sony Corp.'s contactless Felica smartcard platform -- but they require that retailers install a dedicated reader/writer terminal for each e-money system. As a result, it's common to find stores that accept only one of the several e-money brands in operation.

Under the new agreement, which was announced on Wednesday in Tokyo, the common terminal will be rolled out from January."

P2Pizza

Cypyhermint a leading provider of secure electronic payment solutions, and Chris' Pizza of Marlborough, MA, have teamed together to conduct a home delivered pizza service with a mobile payment method dubbed "P2Pizza".

If you live in Marlborough, MA you can order your favorite pizza for delivery. When delivered to your door 30 minutes later, the driver will process your payment with his cell phone. All you have to do is add the tip and confirm the amount on your cell phone. Both parties get an instant confirmation. [Press Release]

Related:

-- Ordering pizza by SMS - (2004) A new payment method being offered by Waltham Pizza is giving new meaning to the phrase "call out for pizza." The restaurant is one of the first in the western suburbs to let customers pay with their mobile phones.

-- Ordering pizza by SMS - (2004) u can now order a pizza from the comfort of your mobile phone - if you live in Australia.

Your cell phone is so money

By next year, you'll be able to pay simply by swiping your cell phone a few inches from a cash register, with a new wireless standard called Near Field Communication. CNN reports.

"An NFC chip in your phone will send your credit-card number -- stored on your phone or on the chip -- by way of short-distance radio waves.

Unlike radio-frequency identification (RFID) and other existing contactless payment systems, NFC chips allow two-way information exchange by rolling an RF transmitter and reader into one five-millimeter package.

An electronic reader at the checkout will decode the number and ring up your purchase.

You don't even have to buy a new phone. When it hits stores next spring, the miniSD-card-size adapter from SanDisk can add NFC to any smartphone with a Symbian operating system when it hits stores next spring.

The first pay-by-phone option should roll out later this year, with more applications to follow."