Rogers Communications today announced that it is getting ready to launch its mobile wallet to customers. Suretap Wallet, described as the “first mobile wallet from a carrier in Canada,” should be available to customers with select NFC-enabled smartphones within weeks.
“The arrival of our mobile wallet is a major step towards our vision of a mobile experience, where Canadians will quickly and securely access cards they carry in their physical wallet on their smartphone,” said David Robinson, Vice President of Emerging Business at Rogers. “We have built a strong foundation to deliver financial services and mobile commerce solutions, and we will continue to deliver mobile payments experiences that are beneficial for consumers and retailers across Canada.”
Customers who download the suretap Wallet will be able to add a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard to it. Virtual gift cards from select national retailers will also be available. Other features will include gifting of gift cards, reloading of prepaid cards, the ability to check account balances, view recent transactions and use location services to find contactless payment terminals nearby. Additional features that will be added later will include support for payment cards from additional banks and payment networks as well as loyalty cards (hopefully to include Vicinity which we reviewed last month).
Rogers did not announce which smartphones will support suretap Wallet but we expect those details to be available around launch time.
Update (11/7/2013): Rogers provided us with more information via email about devices that will support suretap Wallet at launch. Both the Samsung Galaxy S III and BlackBerry Z10 will be supported along with other “select Android and BlackBerry devices.”
Rogers to deliver first mobile wallet from Canadian carrier
suretap™ wallet will include a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard and Gift Cards from national retailers
Approximately one third of Canadian smartphone owners made a mobile payment in the past year
TORONTO, Nov. 7, 2013 /CNW/ – Rogers announced today that its suretap™ wallet, the first mobile wallet from a carrier in Canada, will be available to customers in the coming weeks. suretap™ wallet will be available on select NFC-enabled smartphones and will offer a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard and gift cards from select national retailers as the first cards available for download.
“The arrival of our mobile wallet is a major step towards our vision of a mobile experience, where Canadians will quickly and securely access cards they carry in their physical wallet on their smartphone,” said David Robinson, Vice President of Emerging Business at Rogers. “We have built a strong foundation to deliver financial services and mobile commerce solutions, and we will continue to deliver mobile payments experiences that are beneficial for consumers and retailers across Canada.”
Rogers has entered into various strategic relationships within the mobile payment industry, including officially joining forces with MasterCard Canada through a multi-year strategic agreement to support innovation and drive adoption of mobile payments technology across Canada. Through these initiatives, customers who download the suretap Wallet™ will have the ability to add a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard that can be loaded with funds to use at their favourite retailers across Canada.
The suretap™ wallet will deliver a secure mobile payment experience, safely storing payment card information and passcodes on the secure SIM card in select NFC-enabled smartphones. Customers will have access to additional features within the suretap™ wallet including gifting of gift cards, reloading of prepaid cards, the ability to check account balances, view recent transactions and use location services to find contactless payment terminals nearby. In the near future, additional cards will become available for download including payment cards from multiple banks and payment networks and loyalty cards.
“We designed the suretap™ wallet to deliver a secure mobile payments experience, with an emphasis on the end user and features which enable our customers to take advantage of all the capabilities of today’s smartphones,” said Jeppe Dorff, Vice-President, Transaction Services. “We see this milestone as the first in a series of innovative transactional services we will be offering to our customers in the coming years”.
Last year, Rogers facilitated the first point-of-sale mobile credit card transaction in Canada with CIBC, using the secure SIM card inside an NFC-enabled smartphone. Since then, Canadian’s attitudes towards mobile payments have evolved. According to new Rogers commissioned research from Harris Decima, approximately one third of Canadian smartphone owners have made a mobile payment in the past year and the majority believe mobile payments will save them time in their day.
Additional findings include:
- Canadians with NFC-enabled smartphones are quick to adopt mobile payment technology. Over half (51%) of NFC-enabled smartphone users stated that they made a mobile payment in the past year.
- Generation Y is leading the mobile wallet revolution. Almost half (46%) of Generation Y admitted to making a financial transaction using their smartphone in the past 12 months.
- Canadians want more information about mobile payments. Almost half (47%) of Canadian smartphone owners want more information on how to use mobile payments.
- Canadians want mobile payments to be tied to loyalty programs. Almost half (46%) of Canadian smartphone owners would be more likely to use mobile payment applications if a loyalty program were tied to the payment.
- Canadians believe mobile payments could save them over 18 hours a year (over 3 minutes a day). The majority (51%) of Canadian smartphone owners estimate that they could save time by using a mobile payment app with an average time-savings of over three minutes a day.
suretap™ wallet will be available for download in the coming weeks on select Android and BlackBerry devices. To learn more about the suretap™services, compatible devices and to order a suretap-ready SIM Card, visit www.rogers.com/suretap.
About Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. We are Canada’s largest provider of wireless voice and data communications services and one of Canada’s leading providers of cable television, high speed internet and telephony services. Through Rogers Media we are engaged in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, sports entertainment, and digital media. We are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For further information about the Rogers group of companies, please visit rogers.com.