Hacker News Reader

In Japan as well. I could use my cellphone to take the train at any station in Tokyo and probably elsewhere, buy stuff at the convenience store, etc. You can even link a credit card to your phone so you don't have to charge it with actual money.

I don't think you can checkout stuff on the internet though.

Adding minutes to your prepaid cellphone via SMS can hardly qualify as "mobile payments". You basically buy a calling card, scratch the number, and SMS it to the provider. To say that "mobile payments are already here in India" based on that is inaccurate in my view.

Yes, mobile payments are certainly not new to the world, but have not yet taken off in the U.S. I really want them in the U.S. too and for online commerce.

-Caleb Elston