Most vendors these days offer multiple payment options to their customers as a form of convenience and choice. One payment option that has always garnered attention is mobile payments made through a smartphone.

At the Mobile World Congress, multiple organizations have partnered together to bring contactless mobile payments to this trade show. The companies involved with this project include Samsung Electronics, Visa, Telefonica, GSMA, Giesecke & Devrient, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa.

The endeavor is the end result of months of collaboration and the way it works is the participating companies handed out 400 NFC handsets to consumers at the MWC. The mobile phones come with a Telefonica SIM card, an airtime credit of €60 and are running the La Caixa Visa Mobile Payment App.

Food vendors involved with the trial have a contactless terminal at their store front. A mobile user that wants to make a food purchase under €10 only needs to place his Samsung phone against the terminal and the transaction is authorized and approved online and the funds subsequently withdrawn from the La Caixa Visa account. If the purchase amount is over €10, consumers are also required to enter their secret pin number to validate the purchase.

The MWC is the testing ground for this contactless payment system, but the hope of the participating companies is to eventually roll this technology out to a global audience down the road.

Via: Market Watch