"O2 has begun trialling a 'wallet' system, which allows its phones to be used as Oyster and Barclaycards to make payments." (Full story)
The potential of the billing relationship that mobile operators have with their customers has long been recognised, but so far no-one has been able to put a system in place to leverage it successfully. mCommerce has been largely restricted to payment by txt or to using proprietary systems that have failed to achieve critical mass (eg. Reparo which I tried and failed to install twice on my Smartphone).
It remains to be seen whether this latest develoment by O2 will work, but as it is being promoted by one of the big operators, it has a good chance. In an ideal world the operators would agree the basis of a standard platform and push forward together (as BBB, ITV and Channel4 are doing on the proposed download venture), but we have yet to see the mobile world work in such a grown-up way.
One to watch with interest.
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