SimPay was a consortium which was founded to promote

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

in 2003 but which was closed as of June 2005. Simpay started in Spain by a number of mobile phone companies to build an open, interoperable solution, but was abandoned when key members pulled out in 2005.

History

In February 2003,

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Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

and

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

formed a new

Mobile Payment Services Association A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

(MPSA) with the goal to deliver an open, interoperable and commonly branded solution for payments via

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

s, designed to work across all operator networks. In June 2003 the consortium re-branded itself as SimPay. In February 2005, Amena and

Proximus Proximus (stylised as pro⌘imus; formerly known as Belgacom Mobile) is the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies and is a part of Proximus Group (previously Belgacom Group). It competes with Orange Belgium and Base. ...

joined the consortium. Simpay planned to create a pan-European framework whereby merchants and content resellers would be able to charge for products and services directly to a subscriber's bill. In June 2005, Simpay decided, "following the decision of one of its founding Members not to launch Simpay for the foreseeable future, ..not to pursue its activity on a pan-European scale as originally planned." All activities were put on hold effective June 24, 2005. The UK Simpay founders started work in 2005 on a project called "Payforit" which was launched in 2007 to provide similar services in the UK.

References

External links

Official website
Business organisations based in Spain Mobile payments Deutsche Telekom Orange S.A. Vodafone {{Wireless-stub