Portugal Telecom and Powa sign mobile payments partnership
Mobile payments firm and largest and most innovative telecoms group in Portugal to roll out mobile payments
Portugal Telecom Group and Powa have established a partnership to bring mobile payment services to the small businesses and to the SOHO segments thus enlarging the existing payments market in Portugal.
The breakthrough agreement, the first of its kind in Europe, will see Portugal Telecom employing the white label service offered by mPowa. The all-platform mobile payment deal also anticipates deals in other markets around the world, mainly Brazil and Africa, where Portugal Telecom is present.
In addition, there are ongoing talks for Portugal Telecom Group to offer Powa’s eCommerce platform to its customers.
Portugal Telecom is a global telecommunications operator with 100 million clients worldwide. In Portugal, where it holds a leading position in the markets in which operates, PT provides a wide portfolio of telecoms, multimedia and IT and fixed and mobile convergent services, including broadband access, voice and television, acting in all segments of the telecommunications sector: personal, residential, enterprise solutions and wholesale. Portugal Telecom assumes itself as the leading Portuguese telecoms operator with a wide and solid international presence, particularly in Brazil and Africa. PT has a diversified business portfolio in which quality and innovation are key aspects, aiming at positioning PT as a leading edge operator in the international arena.
Dan Wagner, Chairman and CEO of mPowa, said, “This deal further validates Powa’s strategy of white-labelling its mobile technology to banks and telcos. With smartphone ownership increasing in Portugal, particularly among businesses, it was important for us to work with the market leader and most innovative operator in Portugal to provide added value and help thousands of business users to leverage the multiple channels to generate sales on their mobile devices. Powa offers our partners a simple, robust and ubiquitous commerce infrastructure which is fully flexible and customisable, and with which they can start tapping into growing areas of new business.”
Celso Martinho, CTO of the Sapo Portal, owned by Portugal Telecom, said “Powa will be integrated in Portugal Telecom Group’s innovative solutions and services with a ready to deploy, robust, resilient and secure infrastructure to allow us to roll out mobile point of sale solutions to our customers.”
PT’s innovation approach leverages a network of partnerships with leading institutions, such as technological suppliers, universities, research centres and other international operators. As a result of its structured approach to innovation and investment in new technologies, PT has already supplied 1.6 million homes with fibre to the home (FTTH) and has deployed a 4G-LTE network that offers speeds of up to 150Mbps to more than 90% of the Portuguese population. PT is the leading triple-play operator in the Portuguese market, with 802,000 customers as at September 2012.
Portugal Telecom is listed on the Euronext and New York Stock Exchange, through a full listing of its ADR program, and is present in the reference Portuguese index and in the benchmark sustainability indexes, DJ Sustainability and FTSE4GOOD. Information about the company is available in Reuters via the code PTC.LS and PT and in Bloomberg via the code PTC PL.
For more interviews, commentary or information about mPowa, please contact Rani (rani@flamepr.com) on +44(0) 203 357 9746, Jermaine (Jermaine@flamepr.com) +44 (0) 203 357 9743 or Vivienne at Flame PR on +44(0)203 357 9740 or +44(0)7947541814 or email mpowa@flamepr.com
About mPowa (www.mpowa.com)
mPowa is a point of sale device that enables credit and debit card payments to be made on the go. It consists of a mobile phone app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows or Blackberry devices, and a card reader. The reader is a Chip & PIN device which connects to the mobile device via Bluetooth. It is the first service of its kind in the UK.
mPowa was reviewed by The Sunday Times as its gadget of the week: http://tinyurl.com/9sbjc6w.
mPowa was created by multi award-winning serial entrepreneur Dan Wagner. Dan set up mPowa as the mobile off-shoot of his ecommerce and web publishing platform for small businesses called Powa Technologies. Previously, he established Venda – the world’s largest ‘on demand’ ecommerce provider – and Locayta – sophisticated search and profiling technology – both are now global leaders in their fields. Dan has been described by the Financial Times as a ‘lone ranger with a mass target’ http://tinyurl.com/d9cerax.
