Teller me more

New Media Age, September, 2002

Cash machines offer a ready-made network for providing electronic services, and yet in the UK we still only use them for taking out our money. Could Abbey National's deal with Orange to allow mobile phone top-up at the bank's ATMs be the first step towards widening the hole in the wall?

In Spain, football fans are buying their match tickets from them. In Portugal, people are using them to pay their local taxes. In Ireland, pre-paid mobile phone users are typing in a few keystrokes to get top-ups.

ATMs are suddenly becoming more than just holes in the wail that belch out cash on demand of a Friday night. Abbey National's announcement that it will offer Orange mobile phone users pre-paid top-up credits through its network of 3,000 ATMs marks the first major...