STOCKHOLM -- Global brands Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Western Union (NYSE: WU) today announced a strategic agreement designed to accelerate the interconnection between the m-commerce eco-system and the existing financial world.

The first step of this agreement will result in seamless platform integration between the Western Union Mobile Money Transfer network and the Ericsson suite of M-Commerce solutions, including Ericsson Converged Wallet, Ericsson Wallet Platform, and Ericsson M-Commerce Interconnect. This will enable mobile network operators to easily include Western Union Mobile Money Transfers in the service suite of their mobile financial service offers.

Ericsson's M-commerce services portfolio is designed to unlock the potential of the wallet, fast-track mobile operators' time to market in launching mobile financial services and support the rapid adoption of M-commerce by their subscribers. The portfolio of services can speed time to revenue, increase adoption and stickiness, cost efficiency and performance for mobile network operators and deliver the technology infrastructure to support an interconnected M-commerce eco-system.

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)