Huawei revealed at its Rome event that Huawei Pay will come to key European markets as the vendor extends its global partnership with Visa.

The service uses Visa’s tokenisation technology that provides users with a unique digital ID linked to their Huawei ID.

Users will be able to make payments using the token system, which Huawei says reduces the exposure of card information and adds further security.

The company is seeking to replace the physical credit card, says Huawei mobile services Europe vice president Jaime Gonzalo.

“We are launching offline payment which aims to be a replacement for the physical credit card,” he says. “With Huawei Pay, we are trying to advance mobile payments in Europe.”

Gonzalo addressed potential concerns over people’s mobiles being stolen by explaining that the system is protected by touch ID recognition and can also be deactivated without needing to cancel the Visa card.

“The phone will replace your card and will be tied to your identity,” he says. If your phone is stolen, you don’t need to cancel your card. Nobody can use your card on your phone, as it is protected by fingerprint sensors.”

Bank talks

Gonzalo revealed that Huawei will also speak to a number of European banks regarding other credit payment types in the future.

“We are initially beginning with Visa, but we will then look to talk to all the European banks about incentivising payments through mobile. The rollout won’t be immediate and we will go one by one with the banks, but we want to accelerate this payment in Europe,” says Gonzalo.

Samsung Electronics announced (October 19) that its digital wallet, Samsung Pay is available to American Express cardholders in the UK.

The Samsung Galaxy Note8 or S8/S8+ users can take advantage of iris scanner technology to authorise payments, providing a new level of biometric security.

Samsung Pay is also available on the Galaxy S7/S7 edge, S6/S6 edge, S6 edge+, A3 2017, A5 2016 and J5 2017 devices, and the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch (when paired with compatible all smartphones running Android 4.4 KitKat and above).

In Addition to American Express, Samsung pay supports Mastercard and Visa as well as cards issued by the Co-operative Banks, first direct, HSBC, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide and Santander.

Smartphones and wearable devices will continue to be a major driver in the growth of contactless payments throughout the UK.

This is according to Visa digital solutions director Sandra Alzetta (pictured) who revealed to Mobile News that recent research from the global banking company claims mobile payments are on the up.

Visa surveyed 36,843 consumers in 19 countries throughout Europe, including Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland and the UK between August and September last year. There were 2,000 respondents in the UK.

It revealed the number of users making contactless payments on a mobile device had tripled in a year. More than half said they made transactions on a mobile device, up from 18 per cent the previous year.

However, the UK didn’t rank in the top five countries where the adoption of mobile payments is at its highest. That consisted of Turkey (91 per cent), Denmark (89 per cent), Norway (87 per cent), Israel (87 per cent) and Sweden (86 per cent).

Additional figures from the UK Card Association claim there are now over 101.8 million contactless cards in the UK, with more than a billion payments made by contactless in 2015. Cash payments in the year made up 45.1 per cent of all payments, compared to 64 per cent a decade before.

Full figures for last year are yet to be revealed. However, contactless payments in November totalled £2.9 billion, up 183.5 per cent a year ago.

Alzetta claimed the growing number of smart devices will only help this increase in the future. Although she declined to give specific figures, she did reveal 30 per cent of all payments processed through Visa worldwide were through contactless.

Increasing UK popularity

Despite the UK not being positioned in the top five countries for mobile payment adoptions, she remains confident it can still be a force due to the decreasing prices of smartphones and the widening availability of the technology.

“The UK was a major adopter of contactless technology and this is still on the increase. Smartphones are getting cheaper and more democratised. The technology is becoming more easily accessible to consumers on the UK market. You can stick contactless technology in objects such as jewellery or watches, so there’s a wide appeal there.

“Contactless payments are also driving the adoption of smart technology such as mobile phones and wearables. We’ve found that contactless payments offer a huge selling point to people who are looking for features on a handset or a smart watch which can make their lives much more convenient.”

The findings come after a Mobile Money report from Visa in June revealed a quarter of Brits expect to use their mobile phone to make payments on a daily basis by 2020, growing from one in 12.

Research was conducted in Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK, with the sample size being 12,015 consumers.

Vodafone has partnered with PayPal to allow customers to link their accounts to contactless SIMs to purchase goods at more than 400,000 UK retailers.

Previously, customers could only sync Visa and MasterCard accounts. With the addition of PayPal, Vodafone UK head of consumer services Kate Wright claims the operator now offers “customers greater choice than any other mobile payment service.”

The standout feature for Vodafone Pay is the ability to make payments even when an Android device is powered down, due to the contactless SIM. These can be ordered in the Vodafone Wallet app, online, or at any Vodafone UK store. The service is also compatible with Transport for London (TfL) and National Rail Services.

Payments of up to £30 can be made via contactless terminals. According to the UK Cards Association, contactless payments now account for 18 per cent of overall card spend. In the first half of this year alone, there were 1.1 billion contactless transactions. There were 1.05 billion in the whole of 2015. A total of £9.27 billion has been spent in 2016 so far, up from £7.75 billion in the same period the previous year.

PayPal UK director of mobile commerce Rob Harper said: “Money is going digital, and the smartphone is at the centre of this transformation. Mobile payments have long been at the heart of what we do.

“In fact, this year marks 10 years since we first launched a mobile payment service in the UK. As mobile technology continues to evolve, we will continue to look at new ways to make it easier and faster for our customers to pay.”

Google has confirmed Android Pay will be available throughout the UK in the next few months.

Android Pay allows users to make contactless transactions by simply tapping their phone on any contactless terminal. It will be supported at any retailer and restaurant, as well as the London Underground, who accepts contactless.

The function will be available on any device running Android 4.4 or higher and fitted with an NFC chip. Android Pay has been available in the US since September. Google plans to expand the service to Australia by the end of June.

Users who wish to use Android Pay must store their card details within an app and provide a fingerprint or pass code to authorise a payment. MasterCard and Visa cards issued by Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide will be supported. The maximum limit for contactless transactions currently stands at £30.

Apple launched a similar service called Apple Pay. The initial launch was only available in the US from October 2014, with UK availability being added in July 2015. It is now available in Canada, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain.

Also, we take a look at cyber security, and speak to What Mobile reporter Manny Pham, who spoke to white hat hacker Steve Lord about how to keep your smartphone safe.

Finally, New Way International is set to bring Xiaomi handsets to the UK for the first time.

Visa Europe and Barclaycard have joined the line-up of top companies at Mobile News’ conference “Wearables & Accessories: Analysing Opportunities” to be held at top venue 30 Euston Square in London on November 17.

Barclaycard VP head of retail Rob Morgan and Visa Europe head of contactless Nick Mackie will be discussing the impact of wearable technology on mobile payments.

Other confirmed speakers include Microsoft’s product marketing director (new device experiences) Leila Martine, Griffin managing director Neil Edwards, Beecham Research Fashion Tech Analyst Claire Duke-Woolley and Exertis sales director (mobile) Simon Woodman.

Challenges

The conference is a one-day B2B forum to identify challenges for the mobile channel in the wearable and accessories sectors.

It is part of Mobile News’ ‘Beyond Mobile’ series of channel events exploring strategies and discussion, charting technological developments and analysing roadmaps in the mobile channel. It follows a similar sold-out event held a year ago.

Discount

Early-bird discounted tickets are available for £88 (plus VAT) until September 30. This includes drinks reception, refreshment throughout the day, buffet lunch, and conference documentation. Book your delegate places here.

The Canadian manufacturer normally shies away from the big global trade shows such as MWC from making major product announcements, but we might be about to see that change this
year.

At a recent reseller forum by hardware distributor Ingram Micro Mobility, representatives from BlackBerry’s UK team made a presentation, showing the BlackBerry Passport from September and Classic from December, followed by a blank space of something soon to follow.

This would suggest a major product announcement is imminent.

Codename Visa/Victoria
The phones, apparently codenamed Visa and Victoria, which would have concealed QWERTY keyboards, would be the first to run the BlackBerry 10 OS and the first slider phones from the company since the Torch 9850 in August 2011.

It would represent a massive risk for the manufacturer as the design of these smartphones deviated from BlackBerry’s famed screen and QWERTY keyboard on one slab and reportedly proved to be a massive sales disappointment.

What is confirmed is that president and CEO John Chen (pictured) will use MWC to reveal the firm’s product roadmap for the 12 months, where it should be also revealed how it plans to tackle its declining market share over the past couple of years in more detail.

Back in 2008, O2 asked a representative sample of its customer base whether they would consider paying for items with their mobile phone using near field communication (NFC) technology.

Of the 500 people that took part in the survey and subsequent trial, 90 per cent claimed the experience was a good one, with 78 per cent stating they would be interested in using the service in their everyday lives.

At the time, O2 sent out a press release stating “UK consumers want NFC on their mobiles”. It claimed the results of its trial took NFC one step closer to mass deployment.

Five years later, progress remains slow – in the UK at least. However, just a short hop from the UK, in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava, the story is very different.

According to Visa head of mobile Sandra Alzetta: “Slovakia has really tapped into the market, making NFC a reality.”

She claims more than one million contactless transactions take place now each month in Slovakia and 60 per cent of all Visa debit and credit cards there are now contactless.

More than a third (36 per cent) of all terminals accept NFC payments and 10 per cent of all Visa transactions are contactless.

The payments provider, which has been heavily involved in NFC deployment on mobile devices, predicts the number of contactless transactions in the UK will quadruple in 2013 from 2.5 million per month in 2012 to 10 million per month by the end of the year, driven by major retailers such as Boots rolling out terminals.

NFC-ready handsets are also proliferating, with Visa recently agreeing a deal with Samsung to include its payWave app on new models. The manufacturer expected more than 100 million Samsung devices to be shipped this year with the functionality.

O2 Wallet
In Slovakia, as in the UK, Visa Europe has partnered with O2 to create an NFC version of the ‘O2 Wallet’ app.

O2 had originally intended to launch an NFC version of the app in the UK by the end of last year but overshot the deadline.

The NFC version launched in Slovakia in January, aided by Visa’s partnerships with a number of Slovakian banks to accept the form of payment. One of those is Tatra banka, which is the only bank not to impose an NFC transaction limit – most banks do not allow transactions above €20.

To test the payments system for ourselves, Visa sent us to one of Bratislava’s largest shopping centres, Eurovea, which contains more than 30 outlets that accept NFC payments.

Armed with an NFC-enabled Samsung Galaxy S III handset with O2 Wallet installed and €60 of credit to spend, I set off to see just how good – or how bad – the concept of wirelessly paying for goods with a handset is and, importantly, whether or not it will one day convince me to leave my debit and credit cards at home.

Marks & Spencer
I headed first to British retailer Marks & Spencer’s outlet in Eurovea.

Marks & Spencer has heavily embraced NFC technology, becoming one of the first major brands to install contactless terminals in its UK stores.

Indeed, in Slovakia, Marks & Spencer was one of a handful of shops in Eurovea to have Tatra banka terminals, which I found out the hard way later on in the trial meant it could accept payments of unlimited value.

Starting off slowly, I limited myself to just two bags of ‘Percy Pig’ sweets and made my way to the checkout, Samsung Galaxy S III in hand.

Having tested the service back at the hotel, I had no fears as I approached the till.

On seeing my handset – which I made no attempt to disguise – the cashier knew immediately by what method I wished to pay. It was a far cry from an earlier trial, featured in Mobile News, of Visa’s payWave app during the London Olympics (see issue 523).

I was asked to place my device on the wireless terminal which also handles card payments. I held it there in anticipation.

The settings on the app meant I didn’t even need to unlock the phone or input my PIN for transactions of less than €20.

It was a much more convenient way of paying for small items than with a non-contactless credit or debit card – and the cashier was clearly familiar with the process, which was reassuring.

After a couple of seconds, the words ‘Payment Approved’ appeared and with the pigs bagged up, I left the store. A great start.

Full article in Mobile News issue 544 (July 29, 2013).

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Visa is planning a mainstream launch of mobile payment services this year, following a successful trial at the London Olympics.

The payment company’s UK and Ireland managing director Marc O’Brien said mobile is its “immediate priority” as it hopes to maintain its core business, high street transactions.

Speaking at a Westminster event on the future of digital payments, O’Brien said in 2013 Visa will roll out “much more” contactless cards and terminals.

The UK is second behind Poland in terms of rolling out the infrastructure, which O’Brien said is “not good enough”, adding it should be able to catch up as large retail chains M&S and Boots instal terminals.

Visa has already certified 80 mobile handsets as NFC capable, which means they can be used as debit or credit cards.

To pay for low-value transactions, users tap their device onto a terminal. Higher-value transactions required tapping and entering a PIN number.

The service was trailed on Samsung devices by 700 VIPs during the London olympics. Over the ten-week trial, 10,000 transactions took place.

“We are working to make all handsets NFC capable,” said O’Brien, “We have the means of making the iPhone NFC capable.”