Self-service payment kiosks on the rise

Interest of mobile operators to place self-service payment kiosks inside their stores is heating up. This post highlights some recent developments.

In November, a major mobile operator group deployed a self-service payment kiosk in their new global showcase store in Hungary. In the first phase, the kiosk allows for real-time direct topup of prepaid accounts. Further applications like bill payment will follow in subsequent phases. The kiosk was supplied by sicap in conjunction with their partner WincorNixdorf.

In December, another leading European operator group awarded a contract for the rollout of self-service kiosks for topup and bill payment in their shops. In a first phase, around 20 kiosks will be deployed in a large western European country.

During this year, roll-out of sicap self-service kiosks in Swisscom stores is on-going. Currently 9 kiosks are in operation. Further 21 kiosks will be deployed next year. In addition, Swisscom just confirmed plans to evolve the project with further functionality due to the success of the kiosks.

For next year, planning for a number of pilot installations are underway at sicap, in order to fine-tune parameters before a full roll-out. Interestingly enough, these include several operators in Africa.

So it seems more and more large operator groups in Europe (and beyond) are picking up this kind of initiative ... perhaps it would be worthwhile to look at the reasons why, which we will do in the next post on this blog. Stay tuned :)