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Here it comes: Movistar is the first Spanish mobile carrier targeting the youngest customers, and it does with a set of services focused specifically on the parents’ peace of mind. And this has just started: half of Spanish children between 10 and 15 years old already have a cellphone, and the figure increases to almost 80 percent between 16-17 years. At this rate, parents will soon be able to consumate their resignation as such, finally delegating their responsibilities to their mobile carriers.

Telefónica Móviles has announced a new mobile phone pack addressed to Spanish families that still intend to retain some level of control over how their children use cellphones. The new pack, to be launched next Friday at 105 €, includes a Motorola C-650 cell phone with funny stickers to customize your phone and a Movistar Activa Tu Tiempo prepayment card, plus several consumption-limit and geo-location services:

• Call restrictions: allows defining 15 numbers that the phone can call, besides emergency numbers and movistar’s free numbers.
• Messaging restrictions: 15 numbers to which the phone can’t sent text (SMS) nor multimedia (MMS) messages. Number ranges can also be restricted, thus avoiding premium messaging to contests, drawings and so on.
• Localízame: after the user has expressly authorized it, this service provides an SMS containing the street, the city and the post code where the cell phone is located, within a 200-m radius in urban areas (5 km in rural settings).
• Reverse charging: it allows calls to any movistar line in Spain to be charged to the called party. The destination number gets first a spoken message asking for acceptance.
• Limited access to adult content in emoción:: it allows limiting access to adult pages in emoción, movistar’s WAP content portal.

Besides the above services, the pack also includes the free registration in movistar’s Mi Favorito and Mis Cinco services, as well as two games.

The company says the new pack is endorsed by the Spanish Consumers’ Union, and the SOS Aldeas Infantiles organization will get an euro for each pack sold.

Carriers and cell phones for children

Movistar’s new pack is the first one in the Spanish market addressed to the children’s market. In other countries this market has already been targeted actively by major brands. For instance, Disney recently announced the launch of Disney Mobile, its own mobile carrier that will operate as a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), using Sprint’s network.

There’s also the Firefly cell phone, that looks more like a toy than an electronic device with its reduced set of buttons and bright colours.

Physical money will disappear, as paper condemned metal to a secondary role as small change. For almost three decades, digital money has been gaining ground and it looks inevitable that, in the near future, most financial transations take place via electronic systems: using cards, cell phones or subcutaneal chips. Who knows which technology, but it’s for sure that it will not be old paper bills.

by Ignacio Escolar

(leer versión original en español)

By then, if we do not move to avoid it, the whole planet’s economy will be paying a private tax to Visa, Mastercard, American Express and other companies in this industry, almost with every purchase. The main tax paid by Europeans will be a private one, going into US banks’ coffers. It will be a completely irrational tax, opposed to any fiscal logic. But there is no need to wait for the future: it is already happening. Currently, department stores, if they do not issue their own card, pay percentages under 1% for each purchase. On the other hand, a small retail business pays up to 5% to the plastic money companies. An Internet store, however, pays up to 10% of revenue, and it doesn’t even get warranties that it will get paid if the purchase turns out to be fraudulent, as it happens too often. Consumers are not aware of these taxes because we pay them indirectly. But they badly affect our wallets. All of us are paying them.

There are no figures available about how much the banks get via this currency tax. But most worrying is the power accumulated by payment systems, which almost equals the power of the Finance Ministries themselves. By deciding on which industries pay more or less for their services, they wield the ability to redistribute resources and have some of them prevailing over the rest, according to their own interests. Therefore, e-commerce’s biggest problem is not consumers’ distrust of the Net, but the lack of user-friendly payment systems that do not burden us with excessive commissions. On the other hand, the cut –up to 10%, and even higher in some cases—that plastic money gets from online stores shows how outrageous they can become if left alone, when public money can’t compete, as happens in the Net.

This could be the future: the oligopoly of private money that the Internet suffers today. ¿What would happen if the advances in digital imaging increased the number and quality of counterfeits until consumers abandoned paper currency altogether due to lack of trust?. In some countries, specially in Latin America, this is already happening, fueled by the risk of carrying cash on you in many cities. There, electronic money is almost the only option, and so commissions for using cards are even higher.

True, in many instances, electronic money provides services beyond mere payment. A debit card, which only triggers a bit exchange devoid of any additional financial services, is not the same as a credit card, where the issuer finances the purchase, risks its funds and charges for the benefit of a delayed payment. In the latter case, the commission is fully justified; the former provides a benefit over bulky cash and there is a cost of service. But, why isn’t it a public service?

This is not the first time we face such a situation. Currency was also a creation of private banks, which found this technology a splendid way to avoid risks and traveler overweight. First were the Chinese private banks in the 9th Century. Currency was issued by bankers with backing from the State during the Tang dynasty. Later, the Song dynasty transformed this exchange system into a state monopoly, free of commissions. In Europe, the story ran almost the same. Early currencies were born from private banks: Venetian merchants and the Templars were the pioneers, until nation-states assumed that function by creating central banks.

Today, technological advances would allow developing a good public electronic payment system for a bit more than what it’s already spent in manufacturing reliable and unforgeable bills. The European Central Bank has the means for making this a reality. It must do it. A public, commission-free alternative is the only way to avoid that future money becomes a private oligopoly. But it’s not only a good idea from the point of view of consumers and merchants alike. An electronic Euro would also cement our currency as the currency of the future and would promote e-commerce and the Information Society much better than one thousand advertising campaigns. Nobody better than Europe, the world’s first commercial power, to do it.

Plastic money should not be banned. There’s room for other private payment methods, like bills do not conflict with checks. The technical details of developing the idea should go to specialists, who would be much welcome into this debate. Many issues remain, such as the most appropriate model: anonymous electronic money, which ensures privacy, or fully regulated money, which avoids tax fraud and hidden economy. This article is just intended to open a currenty non-existing discussion. It’s not about nationalizing banks. It’s about avoiding privatization of currency.

Commission rates mentioned in the article for debit and credit cards are those applied in Spain. The rates may vary in other countries.

Copyleft: Ignacio Escolar – Escolar.net
This article can be freely distributed. Copy it, paste it, translate it, multipy it. Please pirate my ideas.

Original article (in Spanish) at escolar.net

This story has been translated from the Spanish original by Thesaurus Serveis Documentals, providers of language services for the technology industry.