EU to Approve U.K. Mobile Payments Consortium

European Union regulators will approve plans by British mobile operators Vodafone, O2 and Everything Everywhere to set up a mobile payments joint venture, Reuters reports. The consortium therefore would represent 92 percent of all U.K. mobile subscribers. 

Known informally as "Project Oscar," the venture will create a mobile wallet platform and an advertising sales effort aimed at about 74 million subscribers to all of the partner mobile networks, or about 92 percent of all mobile subscribers in the United Kingdom. 

The project is designed to enable extensive "data mining" on consumption habits, location and demographics of customers, which would in turn allow creation of highly-targeted advertising and other loyalty services.

Customers would be able to store debit and credit card details on their phones and pay for goods and services either online at retail locations by using their near field communications equipped smart phones.