Mid East m-commerce ready says regional e-business specialist

According to Tariq Habib, Senior Manager Business & Technology, Comtrust, the final technical hurdles facing regional m-commerce have been cleared with the development of wireless PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) solutions and recent advancements in mobile phone handsets.

"From a technology perspective, the final challenge centered round security and in particular the question of online authentication. With the successful adaptation of PKI technologies to the mobile sphere, as well as the recent advances in mobile handsets which deliver the necessary speed and functionality, all the necessary technologies required to effectively support m-commerce services are now in place," commented Habib.

PKI utilizes the latest 128-bit encryption technologies to protect digital information allowing the safe and secure transmission of sensitive data. The same technologies have been used to secure the region's e-banking and e-government services. The technology allows organizations and people to verify their identities to those parties they are transacting with. This ability to authorize remotely enables sensitive transactions, such as financial payments, to be carried out digitally.

With the technology in place the final barrier to regional m-commerce is the availability of applications. "We faced very similar scenario when Internet based services were first introduced. Technically the market was ready, however, until service providers launched applications utilizing the technology, for example e-banking initiatives, e-services were not available to end users.

"The same applies for m-commerce. It will take one major service provider to successfully launch a range of m-commerce services, illustrating the commercial viability of the medium, to spur the development of regional m-commerce," concluded Habib.