Turkcell combines m-wallet and location services

Turkish carrier Turkcell and local bank Akbank have announced a partnership to introduce an NFC-based mobile wallet service incorporating location-based elements.

The consolidation of Turkcell’s mobile payments and LBS initiatives means that subscribers holding Axess cards can pay for goods via Turkcell’s Cep-T Cuzdan m-wallet. Akbank is using LBS functionality to push out coupons and other marketing to users based on their current location.

Akbank’s executive VP in charge of payment systems, Mehmet Sindel, said that the company aims to integrate mobile phones with payment systems and said: “We completed the first stage of our project that is enabling shopping with Axess cards by registering them with users’ mobile phones in previous months through our collaboration with Turkcell. Today, we never leave our mobile phones behind when we walk out the home, and we let our friends and people around us know our location through social media on our mobile phones. We have now launched the first application in our country which combines NFC technology and location based services. By doing so, we will enable our card holders to make full use of the advantages of mobility, and with location based marketing we can easily alert card holders to notice the opportunities around them.”

Watch out for our feature focus on mobile money later this week.