Alltel breaks in a mobile wallet with mFoundry
Banking on bleeding-edge users' willingness to turn their mobile phones into money managers, Alltel has announced that it's partnering with mFoundry to deliver a "mobile wallet" application to subscribers early next year.
Following Sprint -- and, in the case of the iPhone, AT&T -- into the arms of the Sausalito, Calif.-based mFoundry, Alltel will build the Alltel Wallet app. The Wallet, in turn, plugs into the telco's recently launched Alltel Mobile Banking service.
MFoundry's mobile-wallet Mojax platform is quite modular, and new banking, payment and commerce applications (coupons? contactless payments?) may rise up sooner rather than later as Alltel throws the switch on financial modules and new functionality from third-party developers.
In the beginning, though, the Wallet simply expands Alltel's mobile banking abilities to smoothing out access to institutions currently supported by the system, and grants access to new payment services. (Neither Alltel nor mFoundry was forthcoming as to which services though would be, but since mFoundry client Sprint has Paypal access through its iteration of the platform -- and since Paypal is an investor in mFoundry -- it's not inconceivable that that service will be among the early offerings.)
Speaking of money, one might well ask how these mobile banking projects pay off, and where the value proposition lies. Drew Sievers, CEO and co-founder of mFoundry, says that for the mobile provider, mobile banking really is a feature powerful enough to cause subscribers to switch. "Recent research has shown that early adopter consumers are willing to switch mobile carriers to gain access to mobile payments solutions," he says.
But once customers are on board, Alltel Mobile Banking is free (as is Sprint's MyMoneyManager), and there are no plans announced to charge for use of the Wallet. Eleven banks are currently supported by Alltel's offering; Sprint's supports four banks plus Paypal.
The Alltel Wallet is slated to debut early next year.