By Telecom Lead Team: At the Mobile World Congress 2012, Ericsson announced it is partnering with Western Union to support mobile network operators accelerate the launch of their mobile financial services.

Following this development, the companies announced the integration of Western Union’s Mobile Money Transfer Network and Ericsson suite of M-Commerce solutions, allowing mobile operators to include the Western Union Mobile Money Transfers in the service suite of their mobile financial service offers.

Operators rolling out services using the Ericsson M-Commerce solutions will be able to quickly and easily deploy Western Union Mobile Money Transfer services as well, essentially “out of the box” when they contract with Western Union.

“With 2012 set to be a year of rapid transition and dynamic change across the m-commerce industry, operators and financial institutions have a chance to evolve their role and meet consumer needs and expectations in new ways,” said Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson.

Our business ambition is to accelerate access and interconnection between the m-commerce eco-system and the existing financial world,” Vestberg added. Through this agreement with Western Union, we are helping mobile network operators and financial institutions get closer to their customers with differentiated wallet services that connect and add value to their consumers.”

Ericsson has offered its suite of M-Commerce solutions, including Ericsson Converged Wallet, Ericsson Wallet Platform, and Ericsson M-Commerce Interconnect to accelerate the interconnection between the m-commerce eco-system and the existing financial world. 

The portfolio of M-Commerce solutions can speed time to revenue, increase adoption and stickiness, cost efficiency and performance for mobile network operators and deliver the technology infrastructure to support an interconnected M-commerce eco-system.

Mobile operators also benefit from the rapidly growing global money transfer network of Western Union. They can connect their accounts easily and simply to the world’s premier money transfer network of more than 450,000 Agent locations across 200 countries and territories.  

 Ericsson and Western Union will next jointly explore strategic collaborations to further simplify the establishment of mobile financial services by mobile network operators.

“Ericsson and Western Union have a very powerful combination of global scale, relationships, complementary expertise and brands,” said Diane Scott, chief marketing officer and president, Western Union Ventures. Together we believe we can bring mobile financial services to more places in the world than ever before – unlocking the power of financial services for millions of people worldwide.”

 

Ericsson also announced collaboration with MTN to launch m-wallet services in Africa and the Middle East. With this partnership, MTN will become the first operator to deploy Ericsson Converged Wallet platform.

Please see the complete coverage of Mobile World Congress here