Telco SingTel-Optus this week launched in Australia a SIM card-based mobile-payments service as part of a partnership with Visa and Heritage Bank. The Sydney Morning Herald reports the project is a year overdue from its original launch date.

Users can load funds into the mobile wallet account via a prepaid card issued by Heritage bank, according to the report. Some 20 smartphones running Google's Android mobile operating system are compatible with the mobile wallet. 

"We have been working on this for a few years now and sometimes the good, simple things are actually not that easy to do," Ben White, the telco's mobile marketing vice president, told the Herald. "Nearly a million of our postpaid mobile customers [are eligible]. As customers get new devices we expect that number will grow."