Payment-the key enabler for superhighway services

Initial discussion, comments and "hype" about the information superhighway-or as we Europeans call it, the "infobahn"-has tended to focus on the highway as a means for delivering services (such as 500 channel television or telephony) rather than as a medium for business. In recent times, however, the more commercial aspects have been explored and a new view of the infobahn is emerging-the "downloading software-uploading money" model-which is more general purpose. As many industry commentators have observed, all of the technology for downloading software (such as video servers, video-on-demand access boxes and so forth) is well under way. The real barrier to further commercial development is the technology for uploading money. For services such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view (or pay-per-play) to develop, there is a requirement for general purpose digital cash: a replacement for notes and coins with the additional functionality of supporting cash transactions over networks. Even a year ago, this may have been far-fetched but with the announcement of the first such scheme in the UK, businesses can begin to develop real strategies for shifting customer-supplier cash-based transactions into cyberspace. This paper draws on some of Hyperion's recent experience in helping to develop the Mondex digital cash scheme-and other projects ranging from the re-engineering of bank branch businesses to developing process models for telecommunications services-to demonstrate the radical changes that digital cash will cause in infobahn-based businesses.