Finland, where the Executive Vice-President (Services) of Nokia works, has come a long way from those times. Today, you can board a train without a penny in your pocket and wire yourself a ticket using your mobile.

The good news is, India may not be too far behind. With the pilot project in Pune doing “extremely well”, Nokia expects mobile money transfers to take root and grow. At a ‘strategy sharing session' here, Nokia described its vision for mobile money services roll-out in India, a business with enormous revenue potential.

The Reserve Bank of India has permitted YES Bank to provide mobile money services in association with Nokia. (Obopay, a California-based company, in which Nokia has a stake, offers the technology back-up for YES Bank.) The pilot in Pune will end in a couple of months, the result of which will presumably be inputs for the RBI to regulate the roll-out of the services in India.

How it works

But Nokia is ready. How it works is, you go to any of the two lakh Nokia's retail outlets across the country and fill a form which makes you an account holder with YES Bank. Nokia promises that the process will not take more than 15 minutes.

Then you deposit a amount at the Nokia outlet and in minutes the ‘credit' appears on your mobile phone. You are ready to go. You can make payments at shops, pay electricity and water bills and even transfer funds to another person.

Right now, it is only YES Bank, but soon other banks could follow suit. Nokia has initiated discussions with a few other banks, but since it is up to the banks to apply for permission to the RBI, Nokia does not want to disclose their names or suggest a timeline for the launch of the service. Obopay charges two per cent of the value of payments as commission, except for utility bills, where the payment would be between Rs 5 and Rs 10 a transaction.