Turning Mobile Phone into Mobile Wallets

• Posted: Tuesday, July 04, 2006
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• Author: pradhana

By Alice Z. Cuneo

The mobile phone took one step closer today to morphing into a mobile wallet as PayPal announced that the National Basketball Association, along with other entertainment marketers and even some charities, will accept payments via text-messaging over the cellphones.

The new "text to buy" service was unveiled this morning during a keynote address at he CTIA Wireless 2006 conference here. "With the overwhelming popularity of mobile phones, the time has never been better for the merging of e-commerce and wireless devices," PayPal President Jeff Jordan said.

'Lifestyle' phone
The new service is only the latest in a flurry of announcements spotlighting new uses for cellphones. Massao Nakamura, president-CEO of Japan's NTT DoCoMo, yesterday said the Japanese giant is beginning to roll out a "lifestyle" mobile phone service called "FeliCa Service." The so-called 4G, or fourth generation, wireless service will allow consumers to open doors at home, gain access to their place of work, pay for transit fares and utility bills, and check bank balances using only their cellphones. Mr. Nakamura said the wireless carrier is moving to become a credit card issuer to facilitate the service.

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