Over the last few years we have witnessed a development of the ICT like it was never before experienced, from a quantitative point of view , having reached the majority of population, as well as from the qualitative one, which is leading to a deep transformation of the available services. Currently, there are more than 5.000 million of mobile phone users around the world and it is estimated that these numbers will keep on increasing and reaching 6.000 users by 2020. In addition, the importance of mobile phones worldly is also obvious due to the fact that by 2015 the mobile phone coverage will have go beyond the one that electrical network provide in different areas of Middle East, Sub-Saharian Africa and Southeast Asia. All these factors, backed by the existence of technologies like NFC, are helping the mobile phone to become a payment instrument.
Telefónica, as a telecommunication operator, is also involved in this tendency. For this reason Telefónica is developing technological innovations which offer a new experience of mobile payment services for clients as well as for merchants. It is important to provide the clients with the best deals and lowest prices, as well as automatic topping-up or seasonal ticket renewal. As for the merchants, not only providing them new payment services, but also services of value added in the retail sector which allow, for example, savings on transportation operational costs .
Telefónica’s I+D Financial Services area is contributing with knowledge in architectures and technologies to support Telefonica’s launching of financial services based on mobile communication devices , especially on maximum safety items which , like the SIM card, enable the operators to provide these services according to the quality levels required by consumers. Likewise, Telefónica I+D is developing a new application known as “mobile wallet”, as a broader concept of wallet which goes beyond payments and includes identification cards, and services for offering virtual and mobile point of sales.
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