Deutsche Telekom (DT) has followed in the footsteps of other major European carrier groups in unveiling plans to launch a prepaid card in association with one of the big card-payment networks. The German incumbent – which has 90 million mobile subscribers in Europe through its T-Mobile subsidiary – has partnered with MasterCard to enable payments from a stored-value account linked to both a mobile wallet and a plastic card.

Financial institutions like Visa have spent the last 20 years laying the rails for international payment systems. Visa is now leveraging those frameworks to mobilise the commerce experience.

Online payment giant Paypal has named entrepreneur and founder of Zong, David Marcus, as its president. Marcus had held the position of VP of mobile since the acquisition of Zong last year.

Swedish operators Telia, Telenor, Tele2 and 3 are planning to replicate their 4T mobile payment joint venture in Norway and Denmark, where some or all of them are present in the market. Swedish firm 4T was created in November last year and is 25 per cent owned by each operator.

Ahmed Al Mehyas, General Manager for Emirates Data Clearing House (EDCH), owned by operator group Etisalat, talks to telecoms.com about the pressures on operators in the roaming sector as well as opportunities in the mobile finance space. Al Mehyas also talks about his vision of integrating the mobile number with a variety of social services.

Ericsson and MTN Group have co-launched m-wallet services in the Middle East and African regions, marking the first time an operator has adopted Ericsson’s converged wallet offering.

Payment and banking services provider Visa said Tuesday that it has certified NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung, LG and RIM for use with its PayWave mobile payments application. The PayWave application is installed on a secure SIM card and allows users to make payments at points of sale using a contactless payment terminal.

Cost of living through an economic slump? Ridiculously high. Getting consumers to part with their hard earned cash with nothing but a wave of the phone? Priceless. You can almost hear the *tap; kerchings* echoing throughout the industry as our plump but ever hungry financial institutions and payment providers continue their foray into the mobile market.

Google’s mobile wallet venture has become a commercial reality, although it remains very much in its infancy. A trial was announced in May and, at present, the service is supported only by the Samsung Nexus S 4G (WiMAX) handset on the Sprint network in the US, although the retail side is supported by the MasterCard PayPass network