AVING THE SECOND FAST¬est growth of mobile phones in the world, India has already made inroads into mCommerce (finan¬cial transaction on the cell phone), a technologically superior sibling of eCommerce.

mCommerce facilities can either be availed using a facility which enables users to link their mobile phone with their credit card without the need for any extra software, which facilitates transac¬tions on the Internet, through customer care or even via SMS, or to have a Java or SIM-card client-based service that allows either credit or debit cards to be used via the mobile phone, when transacting at shopping establishments.

Banking rules and regulation in India do not allow cash for exchange of another
"unit". However, the regulators have circu¬lated consultation papers in this regard, and the telecom operators are waiting for the much awaited nod to start offering services on the mCommerce platform.

Recently, Airtel has partnered with Money Transfer to allow the Indians staying abroad to send a maximum of $100 to their relatives back home in India. Though its a positive start, it will still take time for the mobile money transfer services to function completely in India. However, GSM Asso¬ciation is confident that commercial money transfers (global) should become a reality by the second quarter of the year 2008.

Like every technology, this too comes with a caveat that such services require high-end mobile phones, which is a genuine problem in a country like India, as the country is inundated with mobile phones which are not suited for such usage.


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