Press Release

ONLINE PURCHASE BY MOBILE PHONE BECOMES CHILD’S PLAY - MIA FACILITATES EASY CONNECTION OF ONLINE SHOPS

M-commerce is the buzz word of the future – more than 6 million mobile customers constitute a highly valuable potential. For today’s GSM world and the future UMTS standard, network operators T-Mobile Austria, ONE (Connect Austria), tele.ring and Hutchison 3G Austria have pushed a joint project.
Effective immediately, all operators of online shops (in the web as well as via WAP) have a new interface, the m-commerce Interface Austria – MIA – at their disposal. Consequently, offering m-commerce solutions for online shops becomes really easy for the mobile operators mentioned.

International studies prove that m-commerce will constitute an important distribution channel in future; above all young target groups already now have a highly positive attitude towards the offer. Even though international estimates of the m-commerce market vary, in general the trend forecast is a sharp rise.

With an easy connection to online shops, MIA will soon facilitate a wide product portfolio for mobile customers. The joint undertaking of T-Mobile Austria, ONE (Connect Austria), tele.ring and Hutchison 3G Austria will further boost the Austrian m-commerce market.

Secure purchasing without transferring sensitive data

For customers the new standard has a large number of advantages: Owing to the standardised dealer connection, many more online shops will be at mobile customers’ disposal in future. The network operator guarantees the anonymity of customers. In the course of the purchase, the customer does not have to disclose any personal or sensitive data to the online shop or its operator. He pays for his purchases just the way he does for mobile phone services by his network operator, e.g. by means of credit card, debit note or with T-Mobile Austria by means of the mobile payment solution „pay by phone“.

Fast and future-oriented

MIA is an easy-to-implement standard permitting the operators of online shops to offer their products in a fast and affordable manner to potential mobile customers. As XML interface MIA has been designed for the coming UMTS age. The objective of the five founding companies also consists in providing other telephone providers with an open platform and thus maximise the customer potential for online shops.

According to the principles of the e-commerce quality certificate

Apart from security also the flexible and simple way of use forms an essential criteria of this standardised solution. The quality of MIA is in line with the principles of the e-commerce quality certificate. Roland Hechenberger (Österreichisches E-Commerce Gütezeichen – Austrian e-commerce quality certificate): „The meaning and quality of MIA are beyond doubt. We start out on the assumption that with this new interface, a new course is set in the field of Austrian e-commerce and m-commerce and will contribute to promoting secure payment in e-commerce.“

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