At first sight mobile communication of the third generation may seem very attractive and advantageous for everybody:
1. on the one hand users will get high quality services such as excellent
2. new revolutionary services like video calls or VoIP calls over the internet
3. sound quality
4. fast mobile internet connection
5. thus can count on getting super-profits within a short period of time
6. on the other hand the mobile operators will get access to the newest market of such services with a high level of demand
Category
Today the development of mobile commerce is impossible without close cooperation of the three major players working in the sphere of B2C (business to customer): mobile service operators, Internet providers and financial establishments. Development and introduction of new finical telecommunication products and their penetration to the market of the existing financial services is becoming possible only owing to such cooperation. Here we are talking about the development of financial telecommunication services that make funds transfers (for example payments for products and services) possible with via mobile devices like mobile phones, smartphones laptops etc. Experts distinguish five major components making mobile commerce possible. Now let's discuss them more closely.
The first and the most important constituent part is the SIM card that the whole system of mobile commerce is based on. Many specialists believe that this technical device is to replace the existing types of plastic cards used for storage of money;
The second component making mobile commerce possible is the prepaid scratch card representing the most convenient way of replenishing both the users' mobile accounts and their "mobile wallets";
The third component is a new interpretation of such notions as electronic cash and the means of keeping it. We are talking about mobile cash and mobile wallets. We already know many examples of using the mobile phone balance as a cashless "wallet": for instance, we can use it to pay for a parking lot or for a subway trip etc.
The fourth component is the 3G service itself that is replacing the second generation GSM networks. The service represents technical means provided by mobile operators making the whole system of electronic commerce possible via mobile terminals. The whole system is often referred to as m-commerce.
The last element of the issue being considered is the mobile system of money transfers and payments for various goods and services which is by nature a combined financial and telecommunication product itself.
The mobile wallet of a user is by its nature a special facility designed for storage of funds that the user may replenish by advance payments (thus the idea of "mobile cash" was developed). If the user needs, for example, to pay for a service or an item in both conventional and Internet stores, he can easily spend such funds by simply calling a short service number. After the initiation of the payment the specified sum of mobile money will be written off from his account, or, we can say, taken from his mobile wallet. Such system is also profitable for mobile telecommunications providers that will receive certain percentage of the payment made by the customer in the store that the operators are cooperating with. A certain percent of every transaction will also be transferred to the bank in which the accounts of the retailer and the mobile operator are opened. That's why close cooperation of all parties is necessary in the process of promotion of the new type of payment.