Abstract:
Mobile network operators are continuously introducing new products and services, to
meet the ever growing demand for mobility in today’s fast moving world, while
simultaneously attempting to make such services increasingly relevant to, and
affordable by low income members of the society. Voice has become a basic
commodity so product differentiation is achieved by value added services. These
services are now the determining factor for the market ratings and revenue shares of
mobile operators.
Mobile Commerce is the ability to carry out transaction anywhere at any time. Mobile
commerce is not only a promising revenue generator but also achieves the pinnacle of
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customer ease. The only obstruction in the way of m-commerce is the lack of a
common standard.
This project, developed in collaboration with Turno-Tech Solutions, aims to design a
system that provides air time transfer facility over the existing GSM network provided
by Mobile Network Operators, user authentication being the prime focus. As part of
the project, a sample m-commerce application, a bus reservation system has been built
upon the architecture.
The system designed is generic and also serves as the building foundation for
advanced applications from the m-Commerce field. It can be used by the travel
industry to update customers on flight status, notify them when this information
changes and will offer to make new arrangements based on preset user preferences
requiring no input from the user. In the entertainment industry, m-commerce could be
used for the reservation and purchasing of movie tickets. In short any merchant can
provide the customer with the facility to pay by their mobile by uploading their
service upon this architecture.
