This is the vision of the mobile payment system provider, Advanced mPay - a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service (AIS) - a company which aims to turn your mobile phone into a mobile wallet, where you can store virtual money to pay for your purchases.

Advanced mPay managing director Konsam Bupppanimite said the mobile-wallet concept would be developed around Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to enable mobile phones equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) to communicate with other NFC-enabled devices to effect payment transactions.

"Just tap a mobile phone onto the reader machine at the shop, and you can easily make payment for merchandise, meals, and even parking fees without digging into a bag to search for your wallet and get out banknotes to pay for the purchases," he said.

NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity standard that uses magnetic field induction to enable communication between devices when they're touched together, or brought within a few centimetres of each other. Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, the standard specifies a way for the devices to establish a peer-to-peer (P2P) network for exchanging data.

Komsan said the company had set aside Bt15 million on research and development of the device, and the technology was now in the testing phase within the company.

The trial period started last month and will continue through to the end of this month. About 50 internal selective users and 10 shops located in and nearby Shinawatra Tower 1 in Bangkok are involved in the test. Once the first phase of field-testing is over, the company will adjust some technical problems and then launch the second phase of field-testing for two months - July and August. In second phase, it will trail NFC-enabled mobile phones with the NFC readers developed by the firm.

The company also plans to work with several partners, included chains of food-court operators, vending machine manufacturers, mass-transit providers, and car parking providers, to popularise the mobile-wallet concept.

It hopes that the new NFC mobile payment system will be available by early next year.

Komsan believes many merchants will be eager to join this new kind of payment service after more NFC-enabled mobile phones are launched to support the concept.

Nokia plans to launch three NFC handset models in the Thai market by the end of the year.

Komsan added that NFC mobile payment was designed for ease and convenience, so it is suitable for payment of small amounts of less than Bt200 per transaction.

"We think that this new system of payment will not entirely replace the existing mode of payment with banknotes and coins, but it will supplement the current method, making it convenient and faster for people to pay for things with this 'tap and go' system," he said.

The Advanced mPay chief said the company also offered other technologies for mobile payment. It offers Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for AIS users, under the mPay service.

USSD is a global system for mobile GSM communication technology, used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network. When users make a payment, they have to dial *555 * followed by the service code, money amount and PIN code to make a mobile payment.

Launched late last year, the company has about 450,000 users, of which around 15 per cent are active, using mPay for paying AIS bills, One-2-Call refills, buying items from vending machines, paying utility bills, and paying for online shopping.

"Now, users who subscribe to the mPay service can pay electricity and water bills. They can use the service to pay for Capital OK's leasing bills and credit bills as well," said Komsan.

Money stored in mobile phones can be transferred from ATMs for further payments. Meanwhile, the mPay account can link up with the user's savings account or credit card.

The company plans to encourage about 10 per cent of AIS's 17 million users to subscribe to mPay services by the end of the year.

It targets revenue of Bt100 million from the service this year.

Komsan said that eventually about 30 per cent of AIS subscribers would use mPay - both USSD and NFC technology.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation