While the Finnish authorities are trying to regulate mobile payments to death, others see the potential. The 6 billion people on this planet now use 4 billion mobile phones. Most of the people live in developing countries where the infrastructure and levels of services vary radically from one region to another. For example, 450 million Indians live below the poverty line, but many of them still have mobile phones. A company called mCheck operating out of Bangalore already has 1 million customers, and is looking to serve 15 million customers in the upcoming years with their SMS and mobile web based payment services. They have agreements with over 100 financial and commercial service providers.

The web is also full of success stories about local micro loans and enterprise services that run purely as a mobile service (search for "mobile micro loans"). Grameen Bank, a Bangladesh microcredit company won the Nobel Peace Price in 2006. Norway's Telenor has teamed up with the bank in Grameen Phone, a Bangladesh based mobile operator and mobile micro loan enabler.

Nokia made a quiet investment recently to Obopay, a California based mobile payment company. I say quiet, because the press release came from Obopay and not from Nokia. Although, Nokia's Head of Corporate Business Development Teppo Paavola, who will also take a seat in the board, did comment that "This investment reflects our belief in the global potential for mobile payments. Obopay has consistently demonstrated its ability to redefine how people spend and send money and has established itself as the leader in a competitive landscape."

The investment from Nokia is 70 million USD, according to  Technology Review. The article describes how Obopay plans to utilize the fact that there are currently 1,3 billion Nokia phones in circulation, this will give them a huge scale advantage when planning and implementing their mobile payment services on a global scale.