Turkey takes the lead...

Date: 29/10/2009

The idea of conducting financial transactions through mobile phones has been around for a very long time.  Back when I was with Logica in the UK, they were working with Motorola and Barclaycard to create the ability to conduct credit card payments from the handset.

Snappily titled "mobile electronic cash machine", the system used a Motorola StarTAC mobile phone that had a slot where the consumer could insert their card to conduct transactions and was combined with a secure SIM that encrypted the card details over the mobile network and back in 1997 this was definitely going to be the thing of the future.

Wind the clock forward some 12 years and at last we are seeing something actually coming to fruition in regards to the widespread deployment of a secure mCommerce solution and its not in the USA, Japan or Europe (technically).  

In fact its in Turkey where for the past two years TurkCell have been quietly trialling and now deploying a complete mCommerce system called TurkcellMobileSignature using a secure SIM supplied by Gemalto that turns any handset into a secure digital signature device that can be used for all kinds of commercial and Government services including authenticating mobile banking transactions, customs declarations or even wedding licences, all from a consumers mobile phone.

So whilst the rest of the World talks about it, Turkey is actually doing it! I wonder how long it might take Europe and the USA to catch up....???

Simon

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