Tata Teleservices set to expand mRupee service to 26 cities

Tata Teleservices's mRupee is essentially a mobile wallet-based payment system, which was launched in January of this year. Currently, it's available in 15 cities and allows a mobile customer to make payments for items such as paying utility bills, booking tickets, and even for money transfers, reports The Times of India. The service is provided by MMP Mobi Wallet Payment Systems (MMPL), which is a 100 percent subsidiary of Tata Teleservices.

The mRupee service has been growing at a rate of 20 percent , with about 250,000 transactions every month that have an average value of 3,800 Indian rupees (US$61).

What makes mRupee appealing in India is that any subscriber on any network and operator, can use this service.  In order to activate the mobile wallet, a subscriber simply needs to walk into a MMPL outlet and deposit cash into the registered beneficiary account.

For a country with the population and subscriber base that India has, having a mobile wallet is definitely a feature that will catch on and become popular in the years to come. There are a few reasons for this. One of them is that ATM machines, while available, are not always in the most convenient places. In fact, some of the most obvious locations, such as highend shopping malls, have very few, if any ATM machines. This is the case with the shopping mall near my house.

As for ATM machines themselves, in many cases, they are out of service because there is no cash available. This is more common than one would expect, and generally happens towards the end or beginning of a month, when salaried people get paid. Lineups at ATMs, even at night, are not uncommon, so having a mobile wallet is definitely something subscribers can look forward too.