Features of mobile phones are changing by the day. Even the reach of mobiles has penetrated every section of society, even in a relatively poorer country like India. Mobile phones are no longer just communication devices but come loaded with a host of amazing features. As id being bundled with a camera, email, browser, video recorder, radio, Mobile Office applications are not enough, now your Jack-of-all-trades handset can also function as an electronic wallet.
Indian cellular service provider, Bharti Airtel, has begun the mChq service in 2 Indian cities, Mumbai and Delhi. This service was previously experimented with in Japan and South Korea but it met with mixed success.
It works on the basis of a special software-embedded SIM card. Regular SIM cards need to be replaced with the mChq-enabled smartcard. It is handy as a 'virtual wallet' and helps you pay for purchases at shops and cinemas. For example, if you buy a pair of jeans at a trendy mall which offers this service, the cashier issues a message to the back-end with the number of the buyer and the amount he has to pay. The servers of the service provider verify the merchant and the amount. An SMS is then sent to the buyer's phone, telling him about the purchase. To validate the purchase, the buyer has to enter his unique 4-digit password and then send 'Yes'. The confirmation is then sent to the ticket counter and a ticket is issued. The entire process takes a minute. Bharti Airtel has tied up with ICICI Bank and Visa Card to offer this service in India. However, there are very few locations which accept this service as a mode of payment. Efforts are on to widen it's scope.
The customer pays nothing for the transaction besides the SMS he sends while validating the transaction. Money sharing between Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Visa Card is on the same lines as that between credit card companies and retailers.
Presently India has over 6 million mobile phone users and the figure is only shooting upwards. This is no rare feat. The inclusion of such value-added services will only help in popularising this medium further.
