Telco Cable & Wireless Optus has announced
non-exclusive agreement with financial institution the National Australia Bank (NAB) to
develop banking services for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Scheduled for launch early next year, the feature will provide account
balance information, funds transfers and online bill payment capabilities
through the Bpay facility.
The NAB feature will join those already Optus’ NETworker WAP service,
which was launched on November 30. These
features include news, weather, stock market prices and horoscopes from
such sources as John Fairfax and Sofcom.
Users will also have limited access to mailboxes at external Internet
service providers through the Post Office Protocol (POP).
According to CWO managing director of mobiles Paul O’Sullivan, Optus
intends to continue offering services through NETworker, as it movse from
providing information to facilitating transactions such as purchasing
tickets.
NETworker will initially be available on the Nokia 7110 WAP-enabled
mobile phone.
The battle over Australia’s wireless market has recently become a volleying match between Optus and Telstra. Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Telstra’s debut in the WAP market in partnership with Phone.com, following Optus’ service entry last month.