Mobile Payments Demand More than Most Mobile Operators' Billing Systems Can Provide, Says Yankee Group

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2004

BOSTON -- Operators must work closely with billing systems to facilitate these new services

Payments and mobile commerce bring a host of new requirements for carriers, from managing partner relationships to advising users of charges before they are processed, according to the Yankee Group report, As the Mobile Commerce Market Grows, Mobile Payment Systems Must Meet Its Changing Needs. Without systems that can handle these current and future needs, operators risk missing out on potential revenue in this high-growth market.

Although voice revenue growth is slowing in many markets, data services are a major growth area for mobile carriers. As these services grow, the systems used to process and bill for them will have to scale and adapt to the demands of network operators and their subscribers. In recent years, vendors have developed new systems to meet the changing needs in mobile content management, billing and payments. These solutions have come from vendors that are focused on supporting mobile commerce and payments as well as established telecommunications billing vendors."Many Tier 1 carriers already have adopted mobile content strategies and implemented systems to support these transactions," says Joseph Levine, Yankee Group Billing & Payment Application Strategies senior analyst. "Mobile payments for other goods and services are still less prevalent, but some carriers support them. The popularity of mobile payments will continue to grow in markets where carriers work together to enable subscribers to make payments across multiple networks. However, the market is still very small compared to the market for mobile content. Effective marketing and promotion of these payment services will be critical to their future success."

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