Swisscom-owned Sicap and ATM manufacturer Wincor Nixdorf have developed an ATM machine for mobile money services.
The mobile ATM acts as a payment kiosk in which users with prepaid mobile money accounts can use the ATM to send and receive money by entering the recipient’s mobile number and the amount of the transaction.
The recipient receives an SMS with a special code that allows them to go to the ATM machine to withdraw the cash. The code is time-locked, so that it expires after a certain time period set by the sender.
The ATMs can also be used for cash top-up and self-service subscription management.
Jürgen Samuel, CEO of mobile solutions firm Sicap, told telecomasia.net that operators are interested in the ATM in part because self-service approach can help them cut costs in their money services.
Consumers will have to learn how to use the ATM – which isn’t quite as straightforward as just sending an SMS directly – but Samuel said consumers could be educated by initially installing ATMs in cellco shops.
“The staff can show first-timers how to use the service,” he said. “It is similar to self-service kiosks for airlines – you don’t know how to print your boarding pass the first time, but there are people there to walk you through it.”