Written by Gareth van Zyl | From IT Web Africa

Ultra thin SIM technology maker Taisys Technologies says that Kenya’s Equity Bank is “determined to challenge” Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money service.

The Taiwanese headquartered Taisys released a statement Tuesday after the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) last month tentatively gave Equity Bank the go-ahead to use thin SIMs for one year.

 Taisys explains that its thin SIMs can be ‘stuck’ onto existing SIM cards and “then be used to execute mobile banking transactions, releasing the bank from the limitations of a telco-issued banking SIM.”

Safaricom earlier this year issued a complaint to the CA arguing that risks such as PIN theft and denial of service could occur with the thin-SIMs.

But the CA struck down Safaricom’s complaints and gave the go-ahead for thin-SIMs.
The CA’s move has subsequently opened the way for Equity Bank to launch a rival service to M-Pesa, which has over 19 million users. Equity also won a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licence earlier this year.

Read more at IT Web Africa