Looks like Movida, the mobile payments joint venture backed by Visa and UK based mobile payments solutions provider, Monitise, has just made public its first deployment, after its initial launch in May 2010. The company has signed an agreement with HDFC Bank, to introduce a mobile payments service. The new service will allow HDFC Bank customers to pay bills, top up prepaid airtime and buy tickets from their mobile phone and will be available across all mobile networks using any Visa or non-Visa branded payment account. We like the fact that the service will be operator or card issuer agnostic, facilitating a wider rollout. It can be used by any mobile subscriber, anywhere and accessed through even feature phones since it uses menu-based USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) mobile technology which is available on all GSM network phones, and doesn't require Internet connected mobile apps or SMS. The service is initially being offered to a select number of customers who will be able to link their HDFC Bank cards to their mobile phone numbers. The company plans to roll out the service across the country, later in the year. USSD messages are realtime messages that create a real-time connection that remains open and allows for a two way exchange of a sequence of data. A USSD message session can be initiated by users by dialing a designated code. It is used by mobile operators to carry out mobile balance and validity requests for prepaid mobile subscribers, as well as for service activation and deactivation requests.…
