Mobile payment solutions company mChek has launched its services in Delhi, allowing those with Airtel post-paid connections to pay their bills directly via the mobile. Interestingly enough, this service is independent of banks since mChek has tied up directly with Visa and Airtel.
I spoke to Sanjay Swamy, CEO of mChek, who told me that they’ll be announcing several merchant tie-ups very soon. They hope to have tied up with around 100 large merchants by the end of 2007, and many small merchants. As a payments solutions company, he says, mChek is focusing on the security of transactions, and hence at no point in time is the pin number displayed, and neither do the details remain on the phone. This is where the operator tie-up comes in- they’re using the USSD based services for confirmation of payment by entering the PIN, and the SMS is not left of the users mobile. Airtel, apparently, has sent out SMS’ to their post paid customers, and the facility is free. I’m wondering if a cost will come into play once such services with merchants are launched.
I also asked Swamy about what kind of a challenge RFID based payments hold for services like his. The challenge, he said, lies in the speed of transactions, but it also comes at an increased cost, because the RFID chip needs to be installed in the mobile device. The RFID technology has an advantage wherein it results in an immediate transaction, while the mobile payment mode takes 12-15 seconds. It’s still a year or two away, and he believes that mChek can also adapt to include RFID. Swamy says that he’s realistic about the mobile payments scenario, and believes that user adoption will take its own time, but the market is large enough for other players and technologies, since the convenience of the service cannot denied.