Everything Everywhere, which operates the T-Mobile and Orange brands in the UK, has signed an five-year partnership deal with MasterCard to develop and provide mobile payments services.
The deal will see a co-branded service that lets users top up their account, then make payments by swiping their phone on a reader in a store.
Other features, including in-store payments made via mobiles that would take funds straight from users’ bank accounts, and person-to-person money transfers, will also be added over time, according to a joint statement from both companies.
Mastercard said it also intended to take steps to help small-business owners accept payments. Many have been discouraged from fitting NFC equipment because of the costs involved.
Mastercard said the move would support the “accelerated adoption” of payments made with mobile devices thanks to EE’s 27-million-strong customer base.
O2, Barclays, Visa and Paypal are among those developing rival services.
Mastercard said one of the first products would be a service in which users pre-pay money into an account before being able to spend it via handsets equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology.
It added that more than 100,000 retailers in the country would be able to accept the contactless payments.
The news builds on an existing relationship between the two companies. Mastercard provides the technology behind Orange’s existing Quick Tap platform, which allows Barclaycard customers to make payments by tapping their card on an NFC-reader.
