Another big mobile operator is considering launching its own payment scheme at the retail point of sale using contactless technology–with Indonesia’s largest mobile telco, Telkomsel, planning to hold a trial in May, NFC Times has learned.
The operator plans to test the service with an estimated 200 to 500 subscribers using a contactless prepaid stored-value application on mobile phones that participants will be able to tap at roughly 100 to 150 convenience stores in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. The telco already has a network-based mobile-payment scheme.
If Telkomsel, which has 80 million subscribers, were to commercially launch its own mobile-contactless payment scheme, it would join the ranks of such big telcos as Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile, which also dominate their domestic cellular markets and have been trying to cut out banks and credit card companies with retail-payment services.
