Mobile payment madness grips North America

Canadian wireless carriers did something this week that US carriers may be seriously contemplating – leave banks and processors behind and provide mobile payment services directly to customers.

The service, called Zoompass, joins the three Canadian carriers, Telus, Bell and Rogers, under one operating agreement which lets customers send, request or receive funds from other customers. The service is seen as a precursor to NFC (near-field communications) which would extend the ability to acquire goods and service from the mobile device for Canadian mobile customers.

The mobile banking and payments space is finally coming alive in the US, but still lags adoption levels seen in Europe and Asia. Bank of America launched a mobile banking service in 2007 and has since seen a surge in adoption, reaching 2.7 million subscribers. The service works on over 800 mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the enablers and processors of mobile banking, payments and remittances are a hot commodity in and around Silicon Valley. A new startup called BOKU (a name that cries for mercy), drew $13 million in funding to drive a service which supports the purchase of online goods simply by inputting the user’s mobile number.

BOKU acquired Mobillcash, a strong European player, and Paymo, which had already established relationships with major US carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless.