Credit card companies realize there could be gold in wireless e-commerce so they're launching the Mobile Payment Forum to recommend standards for embedding e-commerce security in wireless networks and devices.

"Clearly we see there is a significant opportunity here," Simon Pugh, MasterCard International's vice president of infrastructure and standards, told Communications Today.

And increasing mobile e-commerce by making the process secure would benefit the banks affiliated with the credit card companies, said Joe Chouinard, vice president of new e-commerce channels for Visa International. "Our goals and objectives are to make money for our members," Chouinard said.

But the existing state of security in wireless networks and devices isn't conducive to mobile e-commerce. "That's really the matter we have to address," Pugh said. "They're all designed around you being able to make a phone call...as confidently as you would from a normal fixed-line phone and for the carriers to be protected against fraud."

"We want to take a look at the entire mobile network," Chouinard added. "We all feel strongly that mobile will become a strategic asset and a strategic channel for all of us."

In addition to MasterCard and Visa, the forum's founding members are American Express and Japan Card Bureau. The forum is already talking with wireless carriers and infrastructure and handset vendors about participating, but no other companies have signed on yet and the forum hasn't projected a timetable for when its recommendations would be implemented by the industry.

Pugh said he doesn't expect the industry to be hesitant about joining, although acknowledging the security of wireless networks can be improved could damage the industry's image. "I've never run across a carrier who doesn't want to talk about improving their network," he said.

The forum isn't talking about the costs the industry will incur for integrating security measures to support e-commerce. The industry can't afford not to make the changes, Pugh said. "If you don't build the technology into the handsets and the infrastructure, you won't be able to offer secure services and you won't get revenues from them."

--Malcolm Spicer, mspicer@pbimedia.com Look for additional coverage of security in billing for wireless e-commerce in the next issue of PBI Media's Wireless Data News, which will be available on Nov. 21. >TK

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