Nokia and Visa Wave goodbye to plastic and launch handset payment pilot

Payment company Visa International and the world’s largest mobile handset manufacturer Nokia have launched a mobile phone credit card payment pilot system in Malaysia, allowing consumers to shop and pay using their mobile phones. The ‘Mobile Visa Wave Payment Pilot’ claims to be the first system of its kind in the world, marking the first step in plans to turn mobile phones into electronic wallets for consumers, the companies said. It utilises Visa’s Visa Wave smart card technology that uses radio frequencies to eliminate the need to swipe a credit card into a reader, instead allowing customers to pass the handset in front of a terminal to register payment. Visa Wave was introduced in card form last year, but this is the fisrt time the technology has been employed in mobile phones. The pilot will last for four months, with 200 cardholders in Malaysia being given a specially designed Nokia phone that can be used to make payments in more than 2,500 outlets nationwide.