Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard have developed a solution that will allow people in the East African nation to make online purchases with their cellphones, obviating the need for a credit or debit card.

The service, called PayOnline, will soon be expanded to other African markets. It allows Airtel Money customers to make online purchases via a 16-digit code, much like using a credit card. Merchants have to accept MasterCard as a payment mechanism.

The service allows customers to make online purchases by requesting a single-use card number from a menu of options on their phones. Airtel Money then generates a 16-digit number that is valid for 24 hours and a single purchase.

Report.

“The private bus industry in Sri Lanka incurs an immense loss of more than Rs.13 billion annually due to the current system of collecting bus change from passengers. The government incurs an annual loss of about Rs.500 million owning to the production of coins each year. The pre-paid card system would benefit everyone and would be far less of a hassle,” he said. The pilot project will be conducted for about a period of one month on the Gampaha-Colombo and Mattegoda-Pitakotte routes.

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That may be changing, however. In France, the government in 2010 began trials of mobile payments for bus and train tickets in Nice and Paris. Even Google, the search engine leader, has said it plans to introduce a mobile payment service, Google Wallet, in Europe by 2012.

In Britain, most mobile operators and some banks have conducted trials of their own mobile payment services, but the fragmented approach has discouraged large retailers from making the investments necessary to adopt the technology. John Delaney, an analyst with International Data Corporation in London, said a common platform that was set up and run by the three British operators would accelerate mobile payment in Britain.

“Mobile payment has moved beyond its infancy and is now poised for commercial deployment,” Mr. Delaney said. “The benefits of a common platform are that it makes it easier and less expensive for retailers to adopt and install the systems without having to deal with individual operators and conflicting technical standards.”

Everything Everywhere, Telefónica and Vodafone said they all had advanced mobile advertising and payment programs under way, and did not intentionally exclude their rival.

“It made sense to bring their expertise and experience together to get the venture up and running as quickly as possible, before turning to the industry for further participation,” the operators said in their statement.

Mr. Lerner said the exclusion was retribution for Three U.K.’s efforts to lower consumer calling and Internet prices, as well as its campaign to cut the price of interoperator termination charges, which are regulated by the government and tend to benefit the larger mobile companies.

Three also lets its customers use Skype, a rival Internet service that allows consumers to avoid mobile charges

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Google will offer mobile payments with MasterCard and Citibank, according to one of the people, as well as with cellphone carriers, hardware manufacturers and retailers.

Initially, the mobile wallets will be available only on Google’s Nexus S phone and will use a Citibank-issued MasterCard credit card number and a virtual Google MasterCard prepaid card.

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There are many elements to a successful mobile-money scheme: the right technology, simple marketing, partnerships with banks, support from regulators. But keeping it all going are people like Gaudencia, moving bundles of cash around, on buses and in vans, behind the scenes.

Old-fashioned television telethons can stretch on for hours. But the latest charity appeal is short enough for Twitter: “Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief.”

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, many Americans are reaching for their cellphones to make a donation via text message. And plenty of them are then spreading the word to others on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The American Red Cross, which is working with a mobile donations firm called mGive, said Thursday that it had raised more than $5 million this way.

Now I wonder would this be permitted in our countries? Haven’t thought about it at length, so I may be wrong, but methinks there will be some barriers. Any views? Solutions?

Criminal rings are among the parallel currency’s busiest users. Kidnap gangs ask for ransom to be paid by text messages listing a hundred or more numbers of high-value phone cards. Prostitutes get regular customers to send monthly retainers to their phones, earning them the nickname “scratch-card concubines”, while corrupt government officials ask citizens for $50 in phone credit to perform minor tasks. Viewed as cash substitutes, scratch cards have also drawn the attention of armed robbers. In one case, a gang emptied out the card storage of Iraq’s biggest mobile operator, Zain, which is based in neighbouring Kuwait.

Sri Lanka will issue new rules covering financial transactions through mobile phones, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said, as the island’s fast growing celcos join banks to offer new payment methods.

“Given the increased usage of mobile phones for financial transactions, the Central Bank intends to issue new operating guidelines for mobile payments during 2009,” Cabraal said in an annual policy speech Friday.

He said the move was part of an overall effort to improve the confidence in electronic payments, which would also cover payment cards.

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However, security concerns remain. 41 percent of the consumers who transmit data said security was the reason they didn’t buy things via their mobile phone. And 21 percent said they did not trust that the transaction would be completed.

LIRNEasia’s study on Mobile2.0@BOP intends to address such issues relating to M-payments, particularly exploring in detail the case of the Philippines.