|
SERVICE FEATURES
Q. What technology is used for interacting with the user?
A. MoPay promotes the use of simple SMS-based m-payment services as a way to encourage user adoption of mobile payments. The popularity and mass-market acceptance of SMS make it a familiar channel to users and an easy way to enable mobile payments. MoPay can, however, also support other consumer ‘touch points’ for interfacing with users (ATM, Web, IVR) through the same hosted platform.
MoPay recommends the use of SMS as a channel to make m-payments simple and easy to use for consumers, which will ultimately drive user adoption of new payment services.
Q. Does the user have to register?
A. MoPay recommends that service providers actively sign-up and recruit users in order to obtain the necessary authorisation and information required to process m-payments.
MoPay requires little information to process m-payments: the user’s mobile phone number, payment details (bank account number or credit/debit card number), the special PIN or ‘passcode’ that the user will key in to authorise m-payments and any other information necessary to advise users of transactions via SMS (e.g. amount of account in the case of account payment). Depending on who offers the service to subscribers, there are a number of models possible: mobile operator-led, where the user registers payment details with the operator; bank-led, where the user registers the mobile number(s) with a participating bank; and for some applications, merchant-led.
Q. What about USSD?
A. USSD has a number of limitations, including channel capacity and roaming support and as a result, is less user-friendly. Currently, no services enabled by MoPay are USSD-based.
Q. Is IVR a possible channel with MoPay?
A. The MoPay platform features an interface for enabling IVR-based services.
MoPay’s experience is that IVR is a less desirable channel for enabling m-payment services. IVR-based services can require the user to input multiple pieces of information to make a simple payment and often involve rather elaborate menu systems that the user must memorise if payment is to be made quickly.
Q. Do you offer SIM toolkits or J2ME support?
A. The key to ensuring success of m-payments lies in making sure that every user, regardless of handset, can use the mobile payment applications our customers offer.
This is one of the reasons why the ideal channel for launching m-payments is SMS. If an STK push server is already operational, we can integrate with it. In the future, MoPay foresees offering Java applications through a J2ME client to facilitate service usage and enhance security.
Q. Can the user change the secret PIN or ‘passcode’?
A. Yes. MoPay incorporates a PIN-generation facility, enabling creation of a special alphanumeric PIN to be used for authorising m-payments. The user is allocated an initial PIN by MoPay. The end-user can change the PIN at any time or keep the PIN sent to them by the system.
Many banks and mobile operators already offer services using special PINs and passwords and may prefer this existing PIN to a new PIN for m-payments. Should use of an existing PIN be preferred, the system can store this information and can be configured to allow change of this PIN or password by the user at a later date, if required.
Q. What languages do you support?
A. MoPay supports UTF-8, meaning that the system can support any language, including even double bite characters in the case of a number of Asian languages. Western European languages (basic/extended Latin characters) are standard with the service.
Q. Can users access the service when roaming?
A. Yes. Payments can be authorised using SMS whilst the user is roaming.
Q. Can maximum and minimum limits for transactions be set?
A. Yes. This feature is configurable and can be set on a per user basis. Users can be offered minimum and maximum values, a set list of values, or may enter a value of their choice. In addition, MoPay can enforce controls on transaction amounts in a given time period or on the actual number of transactions requested.
Q. Can the system handle default transaction amounts?
A. Yes.
Q. For prepaid top-up, can the user be sent a low balance alert?
A. Yes, but this functionality depends on the prepaid accounting system’s ability to originate low-balance alerts as it stores the account balance information and not MoPay. Should the prepaid accounting system not support low-balance alerts, a push SMS encouraging users to top-up can be sent periodically to encourage use of the service.
Similarly, in the case of account payment and other types of m-payment applications, the system can push requests for payment via SMS to registered users. In this case, the user replies to the SMS with the appropriate payment information such as PIN and the amount to be paid.
Q. Can you integrate the service to physical top-up points like ATMs, PoS devices and lottery machines?
A. As MoPay works by integrating with banks, operators and merchants, it is easy to add any additional user access channels. The complexity of integration and desired result should, however, be studied from a financial perspective to ensure a clear business case.
Q. Who supports individual customers if they have a problem or question?
A. In most cases, whoever offers the service (i.e. the mobile operator, the bank or merchant) will determine who supports the customer. MoPay features an easy-to-use Customer Care module which incorporates a complete set of Web-based support screens for use by the operator, bank or merchant. Through these screens, all aspects of the service from transaction history to registration of additional numbers, from failed transaction requests to changes in customer status in the system, can be accessed.
Q. Does MoPay support Verified by Visa and SecureCode?
A. Yes. M-payment services enabled by MoPay can support VbV and SecureCode according to the published specifications where necessary.
<<<Application and Services / Transaction Handling >>>
|
