Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola yesterday joined forces to create a standard for delivering secure transactions on mobile handsets by 2001.
The move is designed to fuel the rise of m-commerce, such as banking or buying train tickets with a mobile phone - a process the three companies say is being stifled by fragmented technologies.
M-commerce in Europe is predicted by consultants McKinsey & Company to be worth between $9bn and $16bn by 2002. The number of mobile phone users globally is expected to exceed one billion by 2004.
Once m-commerce becomes popular, it is likely that financial institutions will begin loyalty programmes similar to those offered for credit cards.
The standard being developed will be open and based on the Wireless Application Protocol.
Wireless Identification Module and Mobile Public Key Infrastructure technologies will provide the security functions while connectivity will be based on Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth can be fired from a mobile phone, much like an infrared beam, to handle nearby transactions such as paying for a parking meter.
Matti Alahuhta, the president of Nokia, said: "Integrating security and transaction applications on a common core standard and platform will create a global mass market for mobile e-business."
Jan Ahrenbring, Ericsson vice president for marketing, said: "Ericsson estimates that by 2004 there will be around one billion users of mobile telephony and 60m mobile internet subscribers worldwide.
"The most important thing that is needed to get all these consumers to start using mobile e-commerce is a standard which makes it safe and easy to use."
None of the companies would say what operating system would be used for mobile phones. However, they are working with Psion in a software consortium known as Symbian to adapt Psion's operating system, Epoc, into a platform for handheld internet computers and mobile phones.
The three companies expect to have a standards framework ready by the summer. After that they will invite other companies such as financial institutions to provide input.
They declined to say how much they would invest in developing the framework. "It's more about bringing together the know-how than the investment," Rick Darnaby, Motorola's general manager for Europe, said.
