Visa sees cell phones as the best way to expand electronic payments, CEO John Philip Coghlan announced today, where he also revealed ties with several wireless technology companies.

Photo: Visa Invests in Wireless Photo 1

Taking the stage in Orlando in front of several thousand attendees, Coghlan detailed the steps Visa is taking to advance mobile payments, such as the recently announced Visa mobile platform. Visa's mobile platform is a set of mobile services and enabling technologies that serve as flexible building blocks for the development of mobile payment solutions by the financial services and mobile telecommunications industries.

Coghlan stressed Visa's commitment to partner with wireless and financial industry leaders enabled by the Visa mobile platform. Mobile payment is at a critical moment in its development, and realizing its full potential will require close collaboration between the wireless and payment card industries, Coghlan continued. He underscored this message by announcing a number of strategic alliances and partnerships:

- dotMobi - Visa announced a strategic investment in dotMobi, a consortium of wireless industry leaders that is pioneering the use of the ".mobi" domain address and is enabling the integration of enhanced mobile commerce into the mobile consumer Internet experience

- Ecrio - Visa announced a strategic alliance and investment in Ecrio, a leading provider of software for mobile phones on 3G networks; Ecrio enables the redemption of barcode-enabled coupons and tickets from mobile devices at existing point of sale (POS) systems

- VeriSign - A leading provider of digital infrastructure, VeriSign today announced it will support the Visa mobile platform. As part of the agreement, Visa will use VeriSign's content delivery services to provide mobile offer management capabilities

- Qualcomm - Visa is working with Qualcomm to help bring CDMA and WCDMA platforms to market that include NFC, and support the Visa mobile platform

- Kyocera Wireless - The handset manufacturer has agreed to support the Visa mobile platform and will showcase the platform on CDMA-based phones that include NFC at the CTIA event

About 57 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in using cell phones for purchases and 64 percent would consider leaving a wireless service provider that did not offer mobile payments, Coghlan said, citing a Visa survey of 800 people in mid-March.