Top-up your mobile card at ATM!

Next time you run out of your pre-paid mobile card, you can rush to the nearby automated teller machine for a filler.

Euronet Services India, an electronic financial transactions processing company, has entered into a tie up with Visa International to provide mobile top-up facilities through ATMs in India. A first of its kind in the world, the service is expected to be beneficial to over 30 million Visa card-holders in the country.

"This service will enable users to recharge their mobile phones through ATM kiosks, using their Visa cards. A user can refill his pre-paid connection from anywhere in the country and that too at any time of the day," said Srinivas Rao, director, Euronet India, told Business Standard.

The companies have tied up with three mobile operators -- Hutchison Essar (operators of Orange and Hutch), Idea and Airtel -- for services, which would be officially launched tomorrow. Euronet and Visa are planning to rope in other service providers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Tata Tele, Reliance and BPL.

Initially, the top-up services would only be available through the ATMs of Dena Bank, UTI Bank, Development Credit Bank and Corporation Bank. The companies are also in talks with other banks including ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Dena Bank and IDBI Bank for extending the service, he said.

Euronet has around 6,000 ATMs spread across the country, while Visa has over 30 million cardholders. A UTI Bank cardholder can access the services from another bank's ATM, if he is using a Visa card.

This also extends the use of an ATM kiosk, which at present can be used only for withdrawing cash and checking the available balance.

The service is also beneficial to operators as it helps them to bypass existing sales and marketing channels and do away with the logistic concerns as physical movement of pre-paid vouchers is not necessary.

Euronet, the ATM services and maintenance provider, would provide the technology for top-up services, while Visa would take care of the payments part. The companies have entered into a revenue sharing agreement, the details of which were not divulged.

Earlier, VSNL had entered into a similar deal with ICICI Bank for distribution of its dial-up Internet services through the latter's ATM network. VSNL's Internet services are available through 1,675 ATMs in the country.