Alltel Readying Mobile WalletsAlltel Readying Mobile Wallets

Wireless provider Alltel wants to enable its customers to use their handsets as a wallet, and the company has partnered with mFoundry to make it happen.

The partnership announced Tuesday will create a consolidated mobile financial experience that will be called Alltel Wallet. The services are expected to debut in the first quarter of 2009, and should include mobile banking, payment, and commerce.

"We believe that mFoundry's platform enables Alltel to simplify and deliver a seamless experience to our customers, while providing access to a comprehensive set of financial services and content -- all in one mobile location," said Brian Stankiewics, Alltel's director of mobile financial services, in a statement. "The Alltel Wallet developed on mFoundry's Mojax platform provides Alltel with a great foundation that is extensible to other mobile platforms and able to evolve with our customers' needs."

The mobile financial platform has Ajax application frameworks that give developers access to core device capabilities like near-field communications. Developers only need to write their app once and it will work on multiple mobile platforms including J2ME, Brew, Symbian, BlackBerry, and iPhone.

Mobile banking is quite popular in places like Japan, but it has yet to take off in other countries. While the interest may be low, the adoption rate is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years as consumers adopt more sophisticated handsets. Some companies believe mobile banking could be an attractive way to draw subscribers.

"Recent research has shown that early adopter consumers are willing to switch mobile carriers to gain access to mobile payments solutions," said Drew Sievers, CEO of mFoundry.

Mobile banking does seem to be appealing, as companies like AT&T, Bank of America, MasterCard, Nokia, PayPal, Verizon, and Visa are all in various stages of implementing mobile financial services worldwide.