As you may have seen, the date for Mobile Money Canada 2010 has been set for September 21st and our plans for the event are in full gear!  We have already received an overwhelming response from interested attendees and are quickly filling spots, so if you're hoping to attend the event this year, please register early to avoid disappointment.  You can submit your registration here.In an effort to once again cover a wide array of applicable topics and draw upon practical experience from across the industry, we are reaching out to interested parties to submit a speaking proposal at this ...

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In response to my previous blog '5 Common Challenges in Testing a Mobile Money Transfer Solution', I received several emails about challenges and hurdles that others have encountered while performing testing of their mobile money transfer solutions.  Thanks to all that took the time to share their experience!  Below are 2 additional recurring themes that came out of the responses that I received.  These may prove helpful to those of you who are in the heat of delivery.  The first one builds upon one of my previous items, but it further illustrates the particular challenge in such a tricky integration ...

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Over the recent few weeks, I have been asked for my thoughts on some of the most common challenges or hurdles to overcome during the testing phase of a Mobile Money Transfer Solution deployment.  As such, I thought that many of you would benefit from this list as well.As most of you know, a mobile money transfer solution is made up of several applications and back-office systems working together to deliver the service literally into the hands of the customer.  As such, many of the testing complexities stem from this very fact; at it's most basic level, mobile money transfer ...

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A company named 'MyScreen' recently landed a deal with Latin America's largest mobile operator, America Movil to launch an advertising service with carriers in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.  MyScreen provides a service that shows a full-screen mobile advertisement each time a subscriber completes a call.  The user can click on the ad to learn more or press 'End' to exit the advertisement.  For viewing the ad, the subscriber will be rewarded (e.g.. 10 Free Text Messages for every ad viewed), therefore providing an incentive to view as many ads as possible.  The MyScreen platform has the ability to impose limits ...

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Verizon has just announced that it will enter the mobile payments space by offering its consumers the ability to pay for online goods and content by effectively 'billing' the items to their mobile phone account.  All items purchased in this manner will appear on their post-paid phone bill, which they will pay as per current processes.  Verizon is offering the service through Danal Inc's BilltoMobile payment service, providing Verizon's customers with immediate access to content and goods sold through Danal's network of eCommerce merchant partners.With Verizon entering this space, providing this form of payments to their large customer base, this ...

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Many of you have likely seen that Target recently announced the launch of their mobile coupon program, enabling consumers to view and redeem coupons using their mobile phone.  While it will take some time to determine the relative success of this initiative, one thing is certain - the roll-out of mobile coupons by a large retailer such as Target will help to push Mobile Coupons into a mainstream adoption phase for consumers.  Hopefully, the user experience is positive since it will no doubt influence consumer perceptions of mobile coupons in general.  Other retailers will no doubt follow suit and roll ...

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While at the GSMA MWC the other week, I had the opportunity to check out two of the new mobile platforms that were unveiled - Samsung's Bada, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.  Both platforms looked to be quite impressive, and I'm certain that their release has created much excitement amongst developers that are eager to get started on building new apps for these platforms.  However, while the release of new platforms is exciting to some, I'm almost certain that it spells nightmare and confusion for those on the business side that are looking to reach a wide target market through ...

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Up until now, the question has been "How can a mobile operator help me accept payments from mobile subscribers"? Collecting payments for applications & services via operator billing systems has always been an attractive proposition for application & service providers since it leverages the operator's existing relationship with the customer, and simplifies the process for all parties involved.   However, the thought of attempting to integrate with even one operator can be overwhelming in itself, let alone looking at integrating with the multiple operators required in order to truly enable this form of payment within a given region.   Some businesses such ...

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As many of you already know, it has been confirmed. Google will be releasing its own smartphone – due to hit the market in the new year.  Google has decided to bring the phone to market outside the constraints of a particular carrier.  They will sell it as an unlocked phone, creating a freedom of choice in mobile service that is rare amongst North American consumers who purchase smartphones.  So what does this mean for the operators? With Google taking the first step that some are dubbing as ‘risky’, it will be interesting to see how this changes consumer behaviour and their ...

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Mobile Money Canada took place this past Tuesday November 10th, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and I had the pleasure of moderating a panel session entitled “What does it take to build & operate profitable mobile banking services”.  The discussion touched upon strategies for deploying mobile banking to the Canadian market as well as operational considerations and effective consumer marketing strategies.The panel consisted of the following industry experts:1) Patrick Kelly, SVP Business Development at Monitise Americas2) Matt Krogstad, VP Business Development at M-Com3) Joe Salesky, Founder, Chairman, & Chief Strategy Officer at ClairMail4) Eric Feeley, Director of Product Management ...

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