Belgians to start paying with cell phones

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgians will be able to use their cell phones as debit cards within a few months, Belgian cell phone operators and Banksys, a Belgian firm specialized in electronic payments, said on Tuesday.

Using text messaging, the payment system will allow consumers to pay anything from six euros up to the limit of their bank account, Banksys Chief Executive Vincent Roland told a news conference.

Consumers will pay 0.25 euros ($0.33) per transaction and sellers 0.49 euros.

In most countries, banks and mobile operators are still testing different technologies to introduce cell phone payment systems. The text message-based system used in Belgium has relatively large communications cost which makes it unsuitable for small transactions.

"It will take significant marketing budgets to educate consumers, and before people start using it," Fortis bank analyst Bart Joris said.