Telcos and banks delivering ubiquitous mobile transactions?

Is this fitting in with the GSMA - Western Union alliance? The telco's will get into bed with anyone for a slice of those transactions. I wonder if we'll see some trust between telco's come out of this?

Will the lure of fast transaction money lead to mobile roaming rather than mobile reaming? I remind readers that your telco does not trust it's own systems enough to let you roam, and when they do they ream. Why is that? No trust, high risk? I doubt that the telco's will be able to suddenly come up with a trust model.

The NFC thing is playing into the hands of Visa and Mastercard. I assume you know my views on the 'strap on' smart card. It will also see the mobile phone become a target for petty thieves again, but we all know telcos could have stopped all that mobile phone theft long ago - if it weren't for the fact that telcos see a stolen phone as just another potential subscriber. I just don't think that's the sort of trust partner I'd want.

Personally I say go for it, spend big on the NFC and keep those dumb card readers (and Visa and Mastercard) alive. I think I'll try another approach myself, one with a lower cost base, fewer dependencies and it would appear, no real competitors.