Network365 powers first SMS Visa transaction


20 Mar 2003

Irish m-commerce company Network365, through Hong Kong-based mobile operator CSL, has enabled the world’s first Verified by Visa implementation over a mobile channel.

Through Network365’s mzone avatar secure mobile wallet product, CSL will enable mobile payment transactions by authenticating a Visa cardholder’s identity at the time of purchase.

The new Verified by Visa service from CSL allows users to pay for goods on the move using a Visa card stored in the mobile wallet of their phones. During the transaction process, the user is asked for a Verified by Visa password, which is used to verifiy the user’s identity with the card issuer through Visa’s interoperability infrastructure. Once authenticated with the card issuer, the transaction is processed and the user is then notified of the successful transaction through an SMS (short messaging service) alert.

Network365 first licensed its mzone avatar product to CSL in 2001 to power its m-commerce services. Dr Tony Seeto, director of mobile business development at CSL said: “Using Network365’s mobile wallet technology, we were able to implement the Verified by Visa authentication scheme. We can now deliver the widest range of secure payment facilities to our customers. Network365’s ability to quickly respond to our requirements and build the required features into the existing version of the product has enabled us to become the first mobile operator in the world to launch Verified by Visa m-commerce services.”

John Hurley, vice-president of marketing at Network365, told siliconrepublic.com that mzone avatar will be integrated into CSL’s payment gateway and merchants online ticketing systems, of which the first application will be cinema ticket purchases. “CSL is a very innovative operator and is regarded as a pioneer in the field of m-commerce, with 1.5 million subscribers in Hong Kong. We think this application will be vital for companies that want to minimise disputes over non-repudiation issues over credit cards – they want to get paid and don’t want to deal with the hassle of credit card fraud,” said Hurley.

Established in 1999, Network365 has seen its m-commerce applications deployed in 16 countries and key customers include Hutchison 3G, TODO1 (pron. Todo Uno) in the Americas and O2 across Europe.

By John Kennedy