Customer This is the user of the end device (mobile phone, PDA, PC, etc.) who accesses the merchant offer using a mobile terminal and who pays via a mobile phone. Also known as the end-user, buyer, or consumer, they must subscribe for the payment services of a Payment Services Provider and may also subscribe to a particular merchant's content or application service.

Merchant In the m/e- commerce world this entity is known as the content service provider (CSP), application service provider (ASP) or content provider (CP). The merchant offers the customer physical or virtual goods, as well as online applications or real world services. Merchants must subscribe to the payment services of a chosen Payment Services Provider who will handle mobile payment transactions with customers.

Payment Service Provider (PSP) The Payment Services Provider has the contracted responsibility for enabling and settling commercial transactions between consumers and merchants. This entity authenticates customers and merchants, and initiates, authorizes and carries out payment transactions. The PSP may check the credit-worthiness and fraud risk of the consumer, and may handle customer care and dispute settlement. A key PSP responsibility for merchants is to report and reconcile all transaction operations.

Pricing Method The cost of the goods sold can be calculated using continuous or event-based methods. Continuous pricing is based on one or more metered quantities of the content stream or service delivered e.g. the duration of a mobile data session or the volume of data downloaded. Event-based pricing is used for successfully completed, itemized events, e.g. download of a ring tone, icon, MP3, newspaper article etc.

Pricing Range Payments can be categorized according to cost or the amount paid from one account to another. Micro-payments are small amounts of money, typically up to 5 Euro; Macro-payments are larger ones.

Customer Identification For M-payments, users must identify themselves and prove they are the actual mobile account owners (authentication). When a mobile network operator provides payment services the MSISDN (mobile subscriber ISDN) is typically used for user identification. Customer authentification methods used by Payment Services Providers depend on the merchandise and the environment, typically they involve asking for a PIN (Personal Identification Number).

Point of Sale Mobile payment can be used at very different kinds of shops or points of service, e.g. brick-and-mortar shops, electronic commerce shops, mobile commerce shops, mail-order firms, taxis, hairdressers (local, remote online, remote offline). There is a strong correlation between the type of goods or service sold and the point of sale/ point of service.

Goods sold Mobile payments can be used to pay for different types of goods or services including: physical goods from Web based merchants/retailers or real world vendors or vending machines, digital/virtual goods from web sites; or business or entertainment applications. M-payment is also intended to cover goods or services from shops, vending machines, and service companies.