Mobile Banking Is About To Go Mainstream

Citibank today launched a mobile banking service that lets customers pay bills, check account information, and other basic online functions through their mobile phones. The new service, dubbed Citi Mobile, will be available for Citibank customers in Southern California through a download this week at Citibank.com and will expand across the United States this summer.You know mobile banking is big news with Main Street U.S.A. when Time covers it.

But what makes mobile banking so different this time?

For starters, what makes Citi Mobile different is that it is carrier agnostic -- that means customers can access it regardless of which carrier they use.

Now that there is evidence that U.S. consumers actually use the mobile Web and 3G networks are finally a reality, mobile banking may finally take off with North American consumers.

Mobile banking has been big in Japan for a while and is available in much of Europe. While the promise for the U.S. market has been big, banks were reluctant to launch new services for a while because of lingering concerns over security. Slow adoption of mobile data services in the United States was another factor delaying these services. It looks like all the pieces -- better networks, more robust mobile phones, and security -- are all in place now. So will anyone actually use mobile banking? What do you think?