Consumers will be able to use a phone as a wallet or as an access card simply by waving it over a wireless reader — and in some cases punching a PIN number into the phone — similar to how travellers in Tokyo and London access public transport.

The world’s biggest payment card company, MasterCard, is also involved in the initiative, which is cheaper and much faster than other wireless payment experiments, like those using SMS text messages. Trials with the new standard are set to start in October.

China Mobile , Vodafone , Cingular — owned by AT&T Inc and BellSouth Corp — and Telefonica already support the common wireless chip format on the mobile phones they distribute for their networks.

Retailers GoMobile! with mPoria, Inc.
M-Commerce Service Enables Retailers To Reach Millions of U.S. Consumers

SEATTLE, Wa., April 10, 2007 (BUSINESSWIRE) – mPoria, Inc. launched its ‘GoMobile!’ m-commerce service in North America today enabling retailers to sell physical products to consumers through the rapidly growing mobile channel.

mPoria’s new ‘GoMobile!’ service enables retailers to build their own company- branded mobile shopping site without the need for an in-house development team; merchants simply use a wizard to establish a site and within 30 minutes of set-up, mPoria launches the site to millions of U.S. consumers with mobile devices.

To learn more about mPoria’s GoMobile! m-commerce service visit http://www.mporia.com.