In 2007, the Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payment Council published its white paper on proximity mobile payments1 in which the opening statement was, "The convergence of payments and mobile communications is not just logical—it is inevitable."

The purpose of their report was to look further at the journey towards the "inevitable" by examining the progress being made to define a sustainable business model. While the logic behind mobile proximity payments is generally accepted, precisely when they will become widely available and how the industry will get there are still being debated. The convergence of mobile and payment is extremely complex, requiring the cooperation of many players and stakeholders.

The report concludes 86% of the industry stakeholders interviewed predict proximity mobile payments will be adopted, and that the business model will require collaboration among banks, mobile operators, merchants, handset manufacturers and other service providers.

This is an excellent report and I highly recommend reading it.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/The-Smart-Card-Alliance-900869.html

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Name: John McVey Title: Principal, Telecom Practice Company: DonRiver, Inc. View John McVey's Blog