Visa will provide the payment network, product suite, and branding, while Vodafone contributes its 398 million customers in 30 countries on five continents. The companies are calling the result the world’s largest partnership between a global payment network and a mobile operator.
Consumers who own NFC-enabled smartphones will use Visa’s payWave software to make purchases. Vodafone says it is “in discussions” with banks, retailers, transport and utility companies, event organizers, smartphone application developers and advertisers with the goal of adding services and capabilities to its new mobile wallet.
Built on Visa’s prepaid services, the new mobile payment network will be launched in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, and the U.K. over the course of the next financial year, Visa says in a release.
