Telecom Italia has partnered with supermarket chain Coop to enable customers to pay their phone bills at the checkout by scanning a barcode.
To use the service, customers take their Telecom Italia bill to the Coop checkout along with their shopping where the cashier scans a barcode on the letter.
Payment can be made by cash or card, with a commission charged. The store and customer both receive proof of payment.
The service has been developed with SIA-SSB's technology unit TSP, which manages real time verification of the bill data, payment authorisation and account reconciliation.
Following a pilot in a shop near Siena last summer, the service has been rolled out in 64 Coop stores in central Italy and is being tested in other outlets in Emilia and Tuscany. Deployment across virtually the entire Coop network is planned for the future.
Coop is also working to expand the service to other utilities, beginning pilots with several firms.