France’s largest mobile operator, Orange, has concluded a deal with Visa to support its launch of Orange Cash in France, the latest mobile operator to announce plans to roll out its own branded prepaid payment service on NFC phones.
Orange announced the plans today, disclosing its intention to launch the service nationwide in the second quarter of 2014, following a small launch early next year in two French cities, Strasbourg and Caen.
The Visa payWave application is expected to come preloaded on Orange NFC SIMs. The telco says it is generally issuing NFC SIMs to all new subscribers and is bundling NFC SIMs with new NFC phones or plans to do so. Orange is positioning the payments service as a cash replacement and a way to get subscribers started on NFC.
Unlike such other large European groups as Vodafone and Telefónica, which signed groupwide deals with Visa Europe; and Deutsche Telekom group, which has an agreement with MasterCard Worldwide; Orange is not entering into a partnership with Visa for payments throughout its other branches in Europe. It works with MasterCard Worldwide for the small Orange Cash prepaid service it launched last year in Poland and for an Orange Cash launch it plans next year in Spain.
Deals between payments schemes and telcos continue, with MasterCard announcing a deal today with Canada’s largest mobile operator Rogers Communications to offer a prepaid MasterCard PayPass application in Rogers’ suretap NFC-enabled wallet.
In France, banks have also tested NFC payments in Caen, as well as Nice and especially Strasbourg, with some precommercial launches planned by January in advance of national launches in mid-2014.
Orange’s senior staffers responsible for NFC contend the Orange Cash service will not compete with debit or credit cards that such French banks as BNP Paribas and Crédit Mutuel-CIC plan to launch on NFC phones.
The Orange sources say they picked Visa as a partner for the Orange Cash launch in France, despite working with MasterCard on the prepaid service in Poland and Spain, in part to reassure French banks that the has no plans to compete with them.
Words: 1,400
Among Topics Covered:
•Launch of NFC-enabled Orange Cash in France
•Reasons for choosing Visa as payments partner
•Other telco-payment scheme deals
•Issue of whether telco payment services compete with banks
•TSM contracts in France
Sources Quoted:
•Thierry Millet, VP, mobile payments and NFC, Orange Group
•Jean Kehlaoui, head of partnerships with banks and business development, Orange
•Aurelien Lachaud, head of innovation, new payment means, La Banque Postal
•Bruno Prexl, global head of digital payments, BNP Paribas
Among companies and organizations mentioned:
Orange
Visa Europe
MasterCard Worldwide
La Banque Postal
BNP Paribas
Crédit Mutuel
Société Générale
Vodafone
Telefónica
Deutsche Telekom
Rogers Communications
Wirecard
PrePay Technologies
This is premium content from NFC Times