Belgacom is to sell its 40 percent stake in mobile payments provider Tunz.com to another payments firm called Ogone but has signed an agreement that means the three companies will look to jointly develop services in this area. The Belgian operator’s Ping-Ping mobile payments service is run by Tunz.com and Belgacom already works with Ogone which now owns 100 per cent of Tunz.com. Terms of the term were not disclosed.

Interviewed by Dow Jones Newswires, Ogone’s chief commercial officer Marcus Mosen said the agreement would enable the company to expand outside Belgium and that it was talking to mobile operators other than Belgacom.

The Tunz.com acquisition means Ogone now has an e-money licence and can offer a complete mobile payments service to mobile operators, banks and those online merchants who want to create and store funds in virtual wallets.