Mobile Money not a buzz in Europe

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The idea of transferring the money via mobile phone has got a tremendous response in emerging markets like Africa, India and Latin America but the move is likely to be a slow and tortuous affair in Europe.

In Europe mobile payments have not moved beyond the trial stage and it is believed by many industry executives that consumers will only make mobile payments in certain niche situations in the short term, potentially denying operators a way to increase customer loyalty and gain additional revenues.

According to Mark Pickens, an analyst at the microfinance centre CGAP based at the World Bank, Mobile money is going to be a longer slog that takes more brain power and maybe more commitment than a lot of the operators are used to putting into value-added services. It has been predicted by the telecom trade body GSMA that operators could make USD 5 billion from financial services by “banking” 364 million unbanked people by 2012.