TDC, Telenor, Telia and Three have formed a new company to offer mobile payments in Denmark.

Initially, the new venture, which is currently unnamed, will offer payments via an SMS or app-based service followed by the ability to make online purchases from a mobile handset, and finally NFC-based payments in locations such as shops or restaurants.

No launch dates were given for the various stages of the rollout.

The operators first announced their plans to co-operate in June 2011. Mobile operators in a number of other countries have also announced plans to co-operate in a similar manner, including the UK’s Weve and Isis in the US.

The partners have also appointed Peter Bredgaard as managing director who will take up his new position at the start of January 2013. He is currently the chief sales officer of Unwire, a Danish vendor that offers value-added services such as mobile wallet, payments and ticketing, and previously worked for Telia Denmark.

Each of the four operators will have a seat on the board of the new venture which will be chaired by Atos Denmark’s CEO Flemming Jensen.

In the first SMS and apps-based stage, the operators will offer a service suitable for buying tickets, voting in TV polls or making donations. The amount is added to a user's phone bill or taken from their bank account. The operators also say this service could be suitable for corporate users.

In the second stage users will buy products online by entering their mobile number and then confirming the purchase with a PIN. The funds are withdrawn from their bank account.

Finally, the third stage is a digital wallet to which users can add cards such as gym membership, charge cards and coupons. However no mention is made of credit or debit cards. Stage three sounds similar to Apple’s Passbook.

“Eventually” NFC will be part of the service, say the operators, although no launch date is given. Offering NFC “requires cooperation on the development of NFC infrastructure”, they said.

It is unclear from the announcement whether the partners envisage building a single payments system together and then offering services in competition or whether they also plan to offer a joint service to consumers.