The time of trials is over today, as mobilkom Austria – Austria’s largest MNO with its brands “A1”, “RedBull mobile” and “bob” – launches a VISA creditcard for all 4,6 mio A1-customers today. With regard to banking, mobilkom Austria is not cooperating with a 3rd party bank because it has its own “A1 Bank” (similar to NTTDoCoMo in Japan; see post earlyer). 10 years after successfully starting with mobile commerce applications in Austria (and still offering more), the leading MNO in the country moves m-commerce to the next level and is soon present in any wallet with a physical credit card. The black card itself looks very noble with is silver fractal and the sliver contacts. Good job, guys.

The product.

It’s a “normal” (not yet contactless) VISA classic card, with several mobile features based on SMS, and an insurance package. The credit card can also be used to participate in mobilkom austria’s loyalty schema “mobilpoints” as well as be used to pay for any mobile and not mobile service in Austria (eg. like the very popular mobile parking ticket in Vienna and train tickets of the federal railways of Austria.) Of course the card can be used on the internet and with all EMVCo compliant POS/card-terminals. The card was already piloted in Vienna during the summer in order to make sure, that it works smoothly with all acquirers (that’s why the card on the photos has already some scratches).

Mobilkom austria now offers several different means of payments to its customers and with its bank it is a central payment process for micro payment transactions as well as macro payments, which for example can be settled by creditcard. For a product marketing point of view, it is a stroke of genius to be present with the brand on a physical card and additionally having the brand on the mobile as well. Additionally card-only based services can now also be serviced by the MNO.

The technology.

The card is a common credit card product, manufactured by Austria Card and issued by A1-Bank. In the backend system the creditcard is linked with the MSISDN of the customer and therefore existing services can enriched with the card (eg. like collecting loyalty points & coupons with the card, that later can be redeemed for handsets or other mobile services.)

The card itself is still a contacted one (with chip & mag-strip) but I suppose they soon will move to contactless (“NFC”) as “VISA paywave” is mentioned in the announcement. As actually no handsets with the secure element on the UICC are available commercially – we are all still waiting for the Nokia 6216 – an ordinary contacted credit card was issued. This is also due to the fact, that no contactless terminals, neither for payment nor for ticketing are available in the Austrian market. Additionally one has to mention, that even if you have a contactless creditcard in our phone, you will always require a contacted one as well, for example if you go abroad to a country where they don’t have contactless terminals yet. Therefore starting with a card-strategy is for my point a clear message. Whereas in the past everyone was talking about the chicken-egg-problem, this issue is fixed with this creditcard now.

For those of you who like playing with EMVCo compliant cards, I’d like to direct you to sausheong‘s blog who describes in detail on how to retrieve the AID of the application in the creditcard. For the lazy ones, try: 0xA0 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x03 0x10 0x10 0x00 ;-)

The future.

“Go contactless” – what else ;-) Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter explicitly mentioned during the press conference that the upcoming generation of NFC handsets will include this contactless card. And I suppose this will not be the only application. mobilkom austria piloted already a VDV-compliant ticketing system in Austria in January 2009. Thus I’m pretty sure that these handsets also will come with a contactless ticketing application as well. Last but not least, mobilkom was not lazy to mention (several times in the press announcement as well as during the press conference) that contactless technology is very important also for retailers. Thus I suppose that we will soon see contactless payment and/or loyalty in austria’s major retail chains. But this is still a guess.

Trusted Services Management & OTA Management.

“Where is the TSM?” you might ask. Good questions. But now let’s think about the following. The MNO can already put the creditcard onto the UICC before issuing. The MNO can also put his public transport application onto the UICC before issuing. And as GlobalPlatform recently released the specifications for OTA management, I think, that “TSM & OTA” will be an integrated component of MNO, creditcard, payment, ticketing or loyalty platforms as you need applications & a backend that go hand in hand with your daily business. Different applications have different needs, different Service providers have different needs and different MNOs have different needs. Thus even if you have a readymade platform, there is a lot of effort to integrated it into systems of banks, MNOs and other card issuing companies. And don’t forget: TSM is not only the remote management of the secure element, but much more. But of course I might be wrong – in this case you are invited to post your opinion right below. You’re welcome.

The open Issues.

There are lots of discussions about open issues when starting with NFC. But the window of opportunity is not open forever. Question is: what does the customer really need? I think it is important to keep it simple stupid. Industry has to work more customer focused in my opinion. Five different secure elements with 100 different apps are not what we have for 90 % of the customers in 2020. NFC was standardized in 2002, the NFC Forum is working since 2004, UICC standards like SWP & HCI are available since 2008. So get the technology and just do it. (like NTT DoCoMo did already 10 years ago – and they are doing a nice job).

The Summary.

Okay, let’s see what we have in Austria today:

• Customers who like NFC - check
• MNO & Bank infrastructure ready - check
• Additionally applications such as smartposters and contactless ticketing – check
• Solution to start with services based on a card today - check
• NFC handsets for the mass market – hopefully coming within the next weeks (so: check ;-)
• SWP enabled UICCs – available by manufacturers (so: check)
• Contactless Terminals at POS – mhm, still waiting.

This makes me really excited. I hope you too.

The conclusion.

The MNOs is not only providing voice, text and data services but also financial ones. Now you can pay with your MNO’s product anywhere, anytime. Then we have contactless ticketing for public transport and I suppose where will be soon contactless event ticketing as well (eg. mobilkom is the major sponsors of “The Lifeball”, which would be a nice event to use contactless ticketing). I’m really looking forward to the next months and see how this strategy is evolving … I’ll keep you posted.

Further Information.

http://www.A1visakarte.at/

http://www.A1.net/VISAKarte/

http://www.telekomaustria.com/ir/news/2009/0908-credit-card.php

http://www.A1bank.at/

http://www.visaeurope.at/