PART ONE: Michel Poignant is the CEO of Paymotech, a service worth “paying” attention to. A large majority of people on planet Earth have a cell phone, but not everyone has a bank account and credit card. Suzanne Bowen, VP of DIDXchange interviews the astute and gregarious businessman at the beginning of a beautiful spring day in March 2011 on mobile payments and  its universal wallet solution that includes a contactless sticker option. Tap, tap. PIF (paid in full)!

Read on. Click the Listen button on this page to hear the article read to you, OR click to hear the original audio podcast interview between Michel Poignant, CEO of PaymoTech and Suzanne Bowen, Chief Editor of Techistan and VP of DIDX in part one and part two. and …

So how does Paymotech work? Michel states that the current service came originally from two different markets. One is the stored value count … debit bank cards people are using for general purposes such as receiving their payroll. The second is VoIP on mobile SIM card business. Paytoo was a pioneer in both since 2004.

After a few years, some customers for the prepaid card wanted VoIP services and also vice versa, so they started a mix of the two services.

“We started to think of providing services like an incoming phone number from anywhere the client needs even when that phone number is of a city in another country that the client is not currently living in,” states Mr. Poignant. “That is how we came to DIDX.”

Mobile payments, mobile transfers, mobile everything is in the works for Paymotech set of services. The company is an MVNO with services available with roaming in over 190 countries. They decided, why not merge all the services they are providing into one mobile wallet solution.

Why not make money available any time and not just when one wants to make a phone call?

Michel says, “Seventy percent of business in the mobile world is pre-paid. Three billion of them do not have a bank account. It is simply a matter of transferring credit from the user to someone else for anything using the mobile phone, to pay merchants, to make a payment, to have cash access! We offer a real mobile wallet (Paytoo) since November 2009. It was the first in use world-wide.”

This is at least 17 months earlier than Google who recently announced a Google-backed system for mobile payments, expected to be released later in 2011.

Paymotech has millions of users already in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and Europe and the service is catching fast in major cities of the Americas. It is not plan, not a dream. It is a real product already marketed, in use and very popular. In fact, for example, it is extremely popular in Japan in a time when services like PaymoTech’s are very important.

One guy in New York City has a Paytoo account. He has a flexible choice of using PaymoTech mobile telecom services of that of another third party. If he uses PaymoTech, he has one bill, but even if he uses another telecom, he goes to a store to make a deposit of $500 to his account. This transaction typically cost four dollars.

Now, his Paytoo account has a $500 balance. Michel adds, “Ah, I need to add $25 to my mother’s telecom service account in Mexico City. I can do this anywhere, whether I am on the street, at home, at a football game, I can do this transaction on my mobile phone via an SMS. Maybe I need to send another $50 to my daughter who is doing her masters’ studies in China. Next, let’s buy some groceries at Publix. I use my prepaid card for everything. I don’t waste time in lines to top up my card. I don’t spend $20 – $50 just to transfer money to people and organizations I need to pay.

Now, what is a contactless sticker? Paytoo’s offers end users a fast, convenient and fun way to pay. The sticker is equipped with a contactless application, allowing it to be used as a normal payment card at any point of sale terminal accepting contactless. Payments are made by placing the smart sticker a few inches away from the contactless reader. Simply “tap and go.” Just tap the device. No credit card needed.

The Paytoo “contactless sticker” is used in NYC, Japan, Australia, and more. Nepal is one of the new areas where the service is very popular. It is an undeveloped country where normal transaction fees make it not worth to even use a credit card or transfer funds via standard methods.

For a Nepalese person to receive money in standard methods, she will get a notice that her family in the USA, for example, is sending home $200 to the capital of Nepal because her village does not have a money transfer station. She has to take a train to the capital city. A big hassle which takes about 3 days round trip. In addition, typically in Nepal if someone sends you $200, you will actually receive $150 after fees.

On the other hand, with a Paytoo account, even in Nepal, will have a telecom connection on her cell phone. In fact, 35 million people in Nepal have an account on their hand set. She will receive the money through her Paytoo account via the mobile telecom network. She can use the money for things she needs at any store with the POS service compatible with Paytoo. She saves three days’ time and fees.

Michel Poignant mentions his visit with the Minister of Senegal who told him that, “We receive every month, 600 million francs. Ten to fifteen percent are spent in fees. These are not going inside our economy … The people who do not have any money are paying the most for their services.”

“You can avoid standing in lines because you have a bank account, a credit card, but the people who don’t … tend to be the ones who are paying the most for all of us,” adds Mr. Poignant.

“We need to start providing services that are fairer to all people of this planet.

Paytoo offers to Point of Sale device and the contactless sticker that integrate with the contactless technology.

According to a survey done in January 2008, there is a significant consumer interest for the sticker concept. Consumers rated “ convenience” and “easy to use” as the most important benefits of the sticker, followed closely by the ability to experience a “ faster checkout”. Moreover the contactless sticker concept has wide appeal across demographic groups, without much significant difference in demand by age, gender or income. For the first time consumers will not fear to lose cash or their card and leave their wallet at home.

Learn more about Paytoo Mobile Wallet at http://www.paymotech.com/en/services/paytoo.html.

PART TWO :

In part two, Michel Poignant, CEO of Paymotech who, as an MVNO, offer the complete Paytoo mobile VoIP, mobile international phone numbers and mobile payments answer for a complete lifestyle communications and exchange technology and service with contactless feature even … and POS at least 17 months earlier than the world’s technology giant Google.

Michel says, “We give the mobile wallet to our wholesale clients so that they can integrate the technology into their SIM card. If a bank wants to offer a mobile wallet or mobile payments system, we do the same. We look to integrate easily with existing services after you are connected to the cloud of PaymoTech. Every partner is automatically connected with other partners that we have.”

Even huge companies with the most popular brand names one can think of right now … are talking with PaymoTech about investing and/or partnering because the company has connections where they do not for SIM, voice, international phone numbers, payment exchange, contactless technology, and POS device and services.

Companies can spend time and money to re-invent the wheel or work with the pioneer, the successful veteran PaymoTech and its Paytoo wallet. Mr. Poignant is offering invitation to other parties to sign on and be immediately connected with the current list of countries now on board.

“We can implement the payroll payment through Paytoo, voice over IP services on mobile, international phone numbers, and/or other combinations. We are working on a new share revenue program for some time in second quarter 2011,” says Michel. “We do not sell the technology. We give it. Only payment needed is for develpment. Comply with necessary regulations.”

More discussion takes place about complying with regulations and the shared concern and certain measures that DIDX, PaymoTech and other companies have regarding the same such as in money laundering and tax evasion. Michel explains how they monitor which is smartly done via its combined mobile voice and mobile payment services.

Watch the video about Paytoo. Visit http://www.paymotech.com.

Music writers, entertainers and producers will want to check out a new project they have launched in 2011 that will integrate beautifully with their MVNO mobile voice and mobile wallet … music social network for those who want to sell music to the three billion people who do not have a bank account. Visit http://www.muzicol.com/. 

Customer, provider or partner, no matter who you are, go to http://www.paytoo.com. Click on Create an Account which will take you to https://www.paytoo.com/members/signup where you can sign up now! Check the mobile coverage area, mobile rates, SMS callback rates, voIP rates, and availability of international phone numbers. PaymoTech has signed agreement with over a 1000 USA stores and began massive new deployment as of March 22, 2011.

What’s real? Online or offline? Depends on where you spend most of your time working and playing. But … Google, a typically online entity, recently shared they will start testing a mobile-payment service at stores in New York and San Francisco, USA.

By some time around the beginning of August 2011, Android users can use their smart phones to buy products and services from certain stores that Google has made an agreement with, sources told Bloomberg. “The project would put Google in a growing field of companies experimenting with [near-field-communication technology], which lets consumers pay for products and services by tapping a device against a register at checkout, giving them an alternative to cash or physical credit cards.”

Many may read this as something new and it is quite exciting and amazing, but there are actually already veterans in this service, before Google entered the “game.” Paytoo (www.paytoo.com and www.paymotech.com) offers, since early 2010, a secured universal payment solution that has been adopted worldwide. It truly meets the needs of those who do not have bank accounts or who do not want to be hampered with any. No lines to wait ever. Paytoo uses the mobile wallet platform to send money to its users. It handles the loading and authorization process, provides settlement, and authentication support. Each “wallet” can have either a Pre Paid card or contactless sticker attached. The last describes the devices that would be able to “tap against a register at checkout.”

Why New York and San Francisco? Engadget says: “Those two technophile cities represent the most receptive audience NFC is likely to get in the U.S.”

The service will combine a user’s financial account information and gift-card balances. It will store loyalty cards and coupon subscriptions on an NFC chip on their Android phone. “This is good news for Google, considering the iPhone 5 reportedly won’t have near field communications technology,” notes Business Insider. “Google, however, doesn’t have many NFC devices out in the world,” according to Fortune.

Yet, “If Apple does skip NFC hardware for another year, it will likely give Google a solid window with which to build infrastructure … Apple may in fact choose to skip NFC, instead relying on third parties.” To facilitate the system, Google is reportedly paying for the installation of thousands of special cash-register systems from VeriFone Systems. The registers would accept payments from NFC-equipped phones.

We are talking MACHINE 2 MACHINE technology in a way that we can all understand. Techistan will post an audio or video podcast interview with Paymotech‘s CEO Michel Poignant this month March 2011. Meet Michel from Paymotech (booth tba) and many of us from Techistan (booth 3782) at CTIA Wireless March 22-24, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. We’re both in the Emerging Technologies section, surrounding by new innovations. Can’t wait!

Kyle Keogh, Industry Director, Technology, at Google is scheduled as a speaker at CTIA Wireless in the “Ecosystem Debate, is it time to overhaul the system?”

And the complete article on the new Google mobile-payment service is on Bloomberg.