Mobile
phone customers will be able to check their bank balances and top
up their pre-pay accounts using their phones, under a service due
to be launched later this year by UK banks and mobile phone
operators.
The service will
use SMS messaging for billing and GPRS or Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) technology for online access. Transactions will be
routed through the Link cash machine network in real time.
The main mobile
operators have given their support to the proposed service, while
discussions are going on with the high-street banks, said Scott
Housley, head of corporate affairs for Link, which is working with
Mchex, a subsidiary of mobile supplier Morse, to develop the
service.
Transactions will
be encrypted using the Triple Des encryption standard used by the
Link network.
“We’re looking for
an initial pilot with one bank and one operator to test the balance
enquiry,” said Housley. “It’s another example of mobile commerce
benefiting the consumer.”
One possible
future application for the service could be to use it for making
person-to-person payments via mobile phones.
Pre-pay mobile
users can already top-up their accounts at ATMs. The top-up
facility will appear as another option on the ATM screen, with
amounts debited from the customer's bank account in the same way as
a cash withdrawal.
Pre-pay phone users of Orange, T-mobile, Virgin and 02 have
linked their systems to the service, which was launched in 2002 and
first revealed by Computer Weekly. Earlier this month, Royal Bank
of Scotland became the second high-street bank to offer the service
to its customers.