Western Union and the GSMA are developing a commercial and technical framework, which mobile operators can use to deploy services that allow consumers to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency money transfers using their mobile phones.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators who reach oveer 2 bilion telecom users or 83 per cent of the world''s mobile phone users around the world.

The assocaition''s primary goals are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers, whiles creating news business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The assocaition''s. members serve over two billion customers, roughly about 82 per cent of the world''s mobile phone users

Western Union says 35 GSMA operators with a customer base of more than 800 million across over 100 countries are participating in the GSMA mobile money transfer programme.

Led by Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director, Bharti Airtel, the mobile money transfer programme is overseen by a steering committee made up of representatives from Bharti, MTNL, Orange, Orascom, Smart, Telenor and VimpelCom.

"Remittances are playing a vital role in the social and economic development of India and many other developing countries," says Mittal. "This initiative will bring down the cost of lower-value and high-frequency mobile remittances considerably and also enable smaller amounts to be transferred in a fast and secure fashion, thereby benefiting millions of people in the developing world."

The first commercial services that make use of the framework are expected to be ready for rollout at the beginning of the second quarter of 2008.

The framework forms a key element of both Western Union''s mobile strategy and the GSMA''s mobile money transfer programme, which aims to use the reach and ease of mobile money transfer services to expand the mobile financial services market and stimulate social and economic development.

Mobile money transfer services will make it simple, quick and affordable for more people to send small amounts of money through a conventional and regulated system.

Both Western Union and the GSMA believe there is an opportunity to create and grow a large new market for low-denomination transfers.

According to Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, "Mobile networks now cover more than 80 per cent of the world''s population, and 3 billion people have a mobile phone, creating an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the world''s families for the first time. Mobile money transfers are a key driver in the development of a potentially vast market for financial services delivered via the mobile phone."

Says Christina Gold, Western Union president and CEO, "Western Union has a long tradition of innovation. Our focus on the mobile money transfer space is an important step in expanding the range of Western Union''s global services to a new category of consumers. Our brand, extensive network, and compliance capabilities, combined with the GSMA members'' market reach, uniquely positions Western Union in the mobile money transfer marketplace."

The Western Union mobile service will connect operators to Western Union''s existing global money transfer system, which processed approximately 17 per cent of the world''s remittance volume in 2006.

Once connected to the Western Union service, operators will be able to use their own "mobile wallet" software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union''s cross-border remittance network.

The Mobile Money Transfer service will enable consumers to transfer money to or from "mobile wallets", and will offer a global network of Western Union agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.

Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, is a leading provider of global money-transfer services, having over 312,000 agent locations in over 200 countries and territories.