Etisalat to launch mobile wallet services in UAE

Dubai: Customers in the UAE will soon be able to order an item from a supermarket or food from a restaurant without leaving home or office.

This is going to become a reality in the first half of the year as etisalat is set to launch mobile wallet services for a variety of payments and transactions, including domestic and international money transfers, bank account management and purchase of tickets for transport.

“We are waiting for approval from the UAE Central Bank to launch mobile wallet and hope to start this in the UAE in April,” Saleh Abdullah Al Abdouli, CEO of etisalat UAE, said in an exclusive interview with Gulf News.

The new service, being showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2013, Barcelona, is developed in conjunction with MasterCard and Oberthur Technologies.

“We will be launching it in two phases. First in the UAE and then in other countries. We are in talks with certain top retailers in the UAE to launch this service,” he said.

Etisalat is already offering NFC (near-field communication)-enabled services to Metro passengers.

NFC has been around for more than five years but the devices were not readily available. Now most smartphone manufactures are launching NFC-enabled devices.

NFC has been a buzzword at the Barcelona event and GSMA is stressing on this service throughout the event. “Now you can see NFC taking off in a big way locally and internationally,” Al Abdouli said.

To avail a NFC service, subscribers need to first buy a SIM card which supports NFC. You can have the same number. “Now we have to approach restaurants, retailers and service companies to develop an application for the NFC service,” he said.

When asked about opening of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Al Abdouli said: “We are working on a business plan to open it in the UAE. It is only a matter of time. Of course we have to work with TRA to offer a good package.” But he did not say when it will be launched.

Al Abdouli said etisalat will invest Dh2.6 billion on infrastructure in 2013.

“We will continue to invest in fibre-optic, 4G LTE and expand our 2G and 3G infrastructures.”