Mobile phones are increasingly becoming a popular way to make all sorts of payments.

In the recent 3GSM World Congress 2007 summit in Barcelona, several companies were displaying new and innovative mobile payment systems that have been devised or already in some kind of pilot across the world.

The GSM Association, a trade body for mobile phone operators announced an initiative to enable 600 million mobile phone users in more than 100 countries (mostly emerging economies) to transfer money internationally.

In recent weeks, several endorsements and partnerships between major players like telecoms operators, governments and major financial institutions have been announced e.g. Vodafone and Citigroup launching an International Money transfer service, Mastercard Worldwide and the GSM association’s announcement of a pilot person-to-person money transfer program and the acceptance of the Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) programme by the Indian government.

The project is particularly relevant and important for India which is the largest recipient of international remittances from about 20 to 25 million Indians working across 130 countries. The World Bank has estimated that in 2005 Indian expatriates remitted over $22 billion back home. Therefore, remitting funds need to be very simple and quick,”- Dayanidhi Maran, Indian Union minister of communications and information technology.

When analysed carefully, the figures are staggering. Less than one billion people have bank accounts worldwide but close to three billion now have a mobile phone, according to the GSMA. "The only way to sustain ably serve these people is through mobile communications," said GSMA spokesman Ben Soppitt. If successful, the initiative could double the number of recipients of international remittances to more than 1.5 billion and quadruple the size of the market from $230bn (£117bn) to more than $1 trillion (£513bn) by 2012, according to the GSMA.

Several innovative companies have already begun offering mobile payment systems. Examples include Pay pal mobile, Cyphermint and Obopay in the US.

Interestingly enough, the GSM association also made an announcement on another initiative called ‘Pay-Buy Mobile’  which is a natural progression for the industry according to the GSMA’s program - announced last year - to define a common global approach in enabling Near Field Communications (NFC), the technology used to link mobile devices with payment and contact less systems.
By embedding mobile contact less services, such as credit and debit payments, in the SIM card.

Apart from money transfer services, there also exists an enormous potential in providing prepaid debit cards and payroll card services via mobile phones.

In the US alone, it is estimated that there are currently 50 million people who are ‘unbanked’. Globally, the figure is outstanding. Combining mobile phones with prepaid debit cards, payroll cards and money transfer services will extend the role of mobile phones in people’s everyday lives most especially in Africa and Asia.


Success Formula

Since technology currently exists that can transform the traditional sim cards found in most mobile phones into payment cards, an innovative company in this industry could succeed by purchasing the following three domain names currently in my possession.

PrepaidDebitCard.Mobi, PayrollCard.Mobi and MoneyTransferCard.mobi

Asking price $1.5 million.(February 2007)

The current asking price will be increased Starting March 2007 on the 26th of each month by $100,000.00 until the domains are sold.

Benefits to the buyer.

High profile domain name sales always creates buzz and media attention ,a good example in this category would be flowers.mobi which sold for $200,000.00 recently. Advertising/Marketing can be very expensive and $1.5 million is nothing when you start to consider national or global advertisement campaigns.

Owning the generic terms for these industry niches is strategic for any innovative company and makes it easier to market your particular brand name in these niches.

A portion of the proceeds from this sale will be used to assist charities involved with helping the Elderly in Africa who have become burdened by the impact of AIDS on the younger generation throughout the region.


The Purpose

My Name is Phillip , I have a Bsc in Applied computing and product management studies.

Over the years I’ve come to realize I have a true passion for web based technologies. This passion has enabled me get involved in a variety of projects some successful and others not so successful but the education has been priceless.

At the moment, I’m helping some friends with a new UK based start up company (will announce shortly ) and also getting involved with international charities dedicated to helping the elderly who have been impacted by AIDS.

At the moment this leaves little or no time for me to dedicate to the Mobi project.






For Further Information and Updates on this project, visit www.PrepaidDebitCard.org