Dynamic Business

Results from Australia’s first trial of contactless mobile phone payments show a strong appetite for the technology and give Telstra, National Australia Bank and Visa the impetus to continue to work towards commercialisation of the technology.

The three-month trial at Melbourne’s Docklands saw consumers download the NAB Visa credit card software application to their Telstra SIM remotely, and then use their mobile phone to purchase goods and services by simply waving their phone over a participating merchant’s Visa payWave enabled reader. The costs of purchases were charged back to their NAB Visa credit card account.

The trial exceeded expectations, with a clear consumer demand emerging for contactless mobile payments and services, leading the three organisations to continue to explore opportunities in this area in the next few years.

The trial, which tested contactless mobile payments technology as a convenient and easy replacement for cash transactions under A$35, found: 90 percent of trial participants were very or extremely satisfied with the contactless mobile phone payment system; 95 percent said they were likely or extremely likely to use this technology in the future; and 78 percent said paying using a mobile phone was better than cash.

Chris Clark, Visa’s General Manager for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, said: “The trial showed consumers consider contactless mobile payments to be one of the hottest new technologies on the horizon.”

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