Almost two years in development and the subject of a number of
pilot projects since early 2007, UK mobile payments network
Payforit, a joint initiative of mobile phone service providers
Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3, O2 and Orange, went into full service on 1
September. Payforit, which supports mobile content purchases of up
to £5 ($10), enables users to charge purchases to their mobile
phone accounts, a concept that has been highly successful in Asian
countries such as Korea.

However, speakers at a seminar hosted by UK interactive mobile
services provider Dialogue Communications highlighted that if
Payforit was to be a success, considerable work was required. “I
believe Payforit will dominate m-payments for some time to come,
but it is by no means the finished product and further developments
need to be made, which is something all operators and APIs
[accredited payment intermediaries] are working to achieve over the
coming months,” said Dialogue’s MD, Guillaume Peersman.

One particular issue highlighted at the seminar was the low £5
maximum purchase value, a level some operators could raise to £10
within a few months. Marketing is also one of the key issues facing
the brand as consumers are not being told what Payforit is and what
its purpose is, at a time when the new service faces tough
competition from rivals such as Google Checkout and PayPal
Mobile.

Concern over charges

Data charges involved in the buying of content were highlighted as
another major concern for Payforit. In essence, consumers do not
know the final amount they will pay for a game or music download as
the purchase price does not include the data charges that come with
downloading the content.

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Two solutions were discussed at the seminar. One was to list the
size of the download at the point of purchase to enable a customer
to calculate how much extra it will cost to download. The second
option, and one some operators have introduced, are fixed monthly
tariffs that include unlimited data usage.

Despite obstacles, pilot projects indicate that Payforit has a
fighting chance. One of the first merchants to adopt the service,
mobile games provider I-Play, reports an almost 15 percent
conversion rate (visits to sales) for customers visiting its mobile
site.