Mobile payments solution provider Obopay has announced partnership with Grameen Solutions, the company globally recognized for promoting economic and social development through information and communications technology, to deliver mobile banking services to a billion of the world’s poorest people by 2018. The Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion Initiative will provide access to affordable financial services, including savings, [...]

A Juniper Research’s analysis of the global mobile payments opportunity forecasts that 2.1 billion mobile subscribers will “pay by mobile” for digital goods downloaded to their mobile phones by 2013. The research company defines digital goods as music, tickets, TV, user-generated content, infotainment and games — any content bought by phone and delivered to the [...]

Lightspeed Research has released the results of its survey of 1000 Britons to evaluate the likely take up of mobile internet shopping. With mobile phone penetration higher than that of PCs, shopping from the mobile phone has the potential to be the next big thing in retail. The survey results indicated a positive response to the [...]

Orange has announced that it will integrate eBay on a range of it's Singature devices - the first jointly-branded app it will have offered. The app will allow Orange customers to manage bids, and also view new listings, via the Signature range homescreen. I imagine this is some kind of expanding widget, but details are scarce [...]

 MIG does Payforit with Flirtomatic Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has been won a deal to provide "Payforit" services for mobile payments within the Flirtomatic mobile Internet portal, which apparently is one of the UK’s largest. As our (UK) readers probably know, Payforit is the payment service, supported by all licensed UK mobile operators, designed to make it [...]

Well folks, even though mobile payment industry still doesn’t have impressive numbers to report, we all know it’s the way of the future. Following PayPal and Obopay , consumers in the U.S. will soon be able to use yet another mobile payment provider - PayMate. PayMate is an India-based company and their solution is currently being used by more than 3,000 merchants in the country. The idea is of course to replicate their success in America and afterwards who knows — guess we’ll see them hitting major European markets as well. Similarly to Obopay, PayMate is teaming up with all the interested parties, including merchants, banks and carriers, allowing end-users an extensive breadth to the manner in which mobile payments can be made (online, over the phone, and over the counter). As always, we’ll watch this space closely and keep you folks well informed… [Via: Mashable ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Obopay partners with Citi; Set to rule the mobile paymentsPayPal goes mobileVerizon partners with Obopay; Set to announce a mobile payment servicePayPal Mobile Checkout goes live!Obopay partners with Yodlee; Adds instant bank account verification for mobile payments

New forecasts from Juniper Research reveal people will adopt mobile payment systems, it just takes time. According to the research company, around 52 million consumers will utilize such technologies as NFC (Near Field Communication) and other physical mobile payment methods to pay for everyday goods and services by 2011, driving the mobile payments market to $11.5bn. By 2011, around 12% (nearly 470 million) of the total mobile phones in circulation will be NFC-enabled, thereby providing a significant marketplace for retailers to offer goods via mobile payment applications. So far, industry players in Far East and the U.S. have been most receptive to the idea of using RFID or NFC to facilitate mobile payments for physical goods and services… More information is available on Juniper’s site . ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Juniper Research: Mobile social networking set for explosive growthMobile gambling wagers to approach $12 billion within 3 yearsMobile TV generate more than $6.6 billion from almost 120 million users by 2012Softbank Adopting Common Mobile OS Strategy22 billion dollars to be moved over mobile phones by 2011

Mobile payments specialist Upaid today announced the national launch of its Mobile Payment Service (MPS) marketing campaign in Serbia. The service includes all three carriers as well as 10 banks in the country, and is available to the country’s 6.6 million phone users (Serbia has a population of 7.6 million). While we can already pay our parking fees with SMS, the new service will initially allow us to recharge our and our friends’ prepaid phones with a simple SMS. Naturally, no one wants to stop there and soon enough we’ll have a full blown mobile payment system. Actually, not that soon enough, but I guess we’ll be able to use the benefits of mobile payments on such places as gas stations and super markets. The mobile payment service is free of charge to all Visa card holders, who should apply for the new service at their bank. As for the carriers, mt:s has been using the service for the past year, Vip Mobile is launching the service today and Telenor is finalizing the pilot stage. Want to know more? Visit the dedicated Mobile Payment Service site or check out the full release after the break. PRESS RELEASE - Mobile payments specialist Upaid today announced the national launch of its Mobile Payment Service (MPS) marketing campaign in Serbia. Including all three mobile operators and 10 banks in Serbia, this national launch is an expansion to a service started in October 2006 with Visa International and Serbian mobile operator Mobile Telekom Serbia (mt:s). Serbia is the third in a series of markets to sign up to the mobile payment service, with operators in Jordan and Morocco already using Upaid’s innovative payment platform. Customers of all three Serbian mobile operators: Telekom Serbia (MT:S), Telenor and Vip mobile, who register their Visa cards to the service will be able to recharge (top-up) their mobile phones instantly with a simple SMS message. They can also use an SMS message to recharge (top-up) the prepaid phones of friends and family against the same card. Upaid anticipates increasing the portfolio of its services with the operators in the future. mt:s has been using this service for the past year, Vip mobile launches the service today, while Telenor is finalizing the pilot stage, ready for live transactions in November. All customers of the MPS consortium of banks in Serbia who have Visa payment cards and a mobile phone service can sign up to the enhanced service at no cost, setting a new standard for recharge services in Serbia. The MPS consortium is currently made up of 10 banks and all three mobile operators in Serbia, and like the operators they represent, the consortium includes a mix of local and international banks such as Continental, Komercijalna and Piraeus, as well as Austria’s Raiffeisen, France’s Société Générale, Greece’s Alpha bank and Italy’s Banca Intesa. Together they represent over 75% of card holders, and more banks have applied to join. Banks will be including MPS in their own marketing campaigns from November, using the MPS marketing materials, through the end of this year. Together, these banks and operators are cooperating to bring a full mobile payments system to the country’s 6.6 million phone users. Upaid has provided consortium members with a marketing toolkit to ensure a coherent national marketing campaign, and leads this effort with a print and billboard campaign starting October 30th and running through to the end of 2007. Upaid has also created and launched an informational website in English and Serbian for customers to learn how to practically use the MPS service. The MPS site, http://www.uslugemobilnogplacanja.com , contains instructional demos on how to top-up mobile phones with each mobile operator, and how to contact banks to sign up for the service. Visa Comments: “Compared to other recharge options, such as electronic recharge in shops, or scratch cards, this mobile service gives consumers the freedom to top-up instantly and independently at shops and merchants. We are delighted to see more banks and operators signing up to this service. Upaid has been instrumental in our expansion in the Serbian market and we hope to repeat and even exceed the success we had in Jordan and Morocco here in Serbia”, said Jean-Marc-Tonti, Vice President, South East Europe, Visa CEMEA. MT:S comments: Since our successful launch of this service with Visa and Upaid last year, we are delighted to see the consortium of banks grow to make the Mobile Payment Service offered to all our customers, regardless of their respective banks. We look forward to rolling out the next services in the project, namely mobile bill payment” said Jelena Stojanovic, Head of Marketing and Sales Department at mt:s. Telenor comments: “We are very glad to join the Mobile Payment Service consortium and to offer this recharge payment option to our subscribers. We are dedicated to providing the best possible services and technological advances for our customers to ensure our competitive advantage is maintained,” said Branko Bajic, Product Manager Payment, Marketing Acquisition at Telenor Vip mobile comments: “We are happy to offer our mobile customers the freedom to top-up instantly and independently from their phones anytime and anywhere, even when abroad, simply by sending a message from the handset. This new payment service confirms our commitment to provide best possible mobile services for our customers”, say Dragana Roter, Head of Corporate Communications. Terence Trench, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Upaid said: “Since launching this service a year ago, we have seen great progress in the Serbian market, and have expanded to include 10 banks and growing. With the addition of mobile operators such as Telenor and Vip mobile, to our service already offered by mt:s, we are confident that we will reach the majority of Serbian mobile users and Visa card holders. This market is perfect for Upaid to roll out additional services in the future, such as utility payments.” There are currently 2.2 million Visa card holders in Serbia, a large proportion of which will have access to the new Upaid service. Serbia has 6.6 million mobile phone users, and a population of 7.6 million. ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:VeriSign And Visa Team Up For Mobile BankingHilarious Microsoft Windows Mobile advertising campaign - Untamed WorkforceBelgium - World's First To Pay By SMS TextObopay partners with Citi; Set to rule the mobile payments88% of Serbians use mobile phones - Serbia mobile phone usage on the up and up!