Mobile payments provider Upaid  has announced the largest Visa Mobile Service (VMS) deployment with Serbian mobile operator, Telekom Srbia (MTS). Serbia is the third in a series of markets to sign up to the mobile payment service, with operators in Jordan and Morocco already using Upaids innovative payment platform.
Visa Mobile Service gives consumers the freedom to top-up instantly and independently at shops and merchants. After assigning a Visa card to their phone number, mobile phone users can recharge airtime anytime and anywhere, even when abroad, simply by sending a message from the handset.
Similar projects exist on the Serbian market, but Upaid says the potential of this service is much greater, since Visa Mobile Service links eight of its banks across Serbia together with MTS s 3.7 million customers. Based on the existing payment infrastructure in use by MTS, the service enables customers to top up their mobile phones via SMS, which then authorises payment from a Visa debit or credit card.
All clients of Raiffeisen Bank, Banca Intesa, Alpha Bank, NLB Continental Banka who have Visa payment cards and MTS prepaid mobile account can sign up to the service. There are currently 1.8 million Visa card holders in Serbia, with the 2 million mark expected to be reached in 2007, a large proportion of which will have access to the service.
Serbia has a population of 7.5 million, of whom 5.2 million are mobile phone users, the majority prepaid. The current methods of payment for prepaid mobile phones are scratch cards and electronic recharge – both of which are limited to shop opening hours.   
“The VMS service has been fully operational for over two years now and we are delighted to see more banks and operators signing up to the service says Visa International CEMEA Head of Merchant Solutions, Chris Winter. Our trusted partner, Upaid has been instrumental in our expansion in to the Serbian market and we hope to repeat and even exceed the success of Jordan and Morocco in Serbia.”
For Upaid, CEO Simon Joyce adds:
This is another great success for us and demonstrates our ability to understand the needs of the market in order to help mobile operators realise the benefits of electronic payment transactions. We look forward to bringing more banks into this consortium as interest in the service grows.”