Telia Denmark, TDC, Telenor Denmark and 3 Denmark have formed a joint company to develop their mobile wallet platform in a bid to make cards and cash redundant.

The system will make it easy and safe to carry out contactless payments regardless of which provider customers use and ensure a smooth transition if people switch their phone company, say the partners.

With the first handsets to carry NFC-enabled SIM cards set to hit the market in Denmark this autumn, the partners predict that their digital wallet will be widespread within a few years.

The Danish project is following a similar model being employed by telcos in the US, under the Isis brand, and in the UK by Everything Everywhere, Telefonica and Vodafone.

Meanwhile, Denmark's banks are also working together on a different sort of mobile payments system, using text messaging. BankSMS is slated to launch later this year, enabling users to initiate purchases of things like train tickets by sending a text message with a product code.

The buyer then receives a message describing the requested ticket and its cost before completing the purchase by replying "yes". The ticket is then sent via text and the cost debited from an attached bank account.

The banks says the SMS system offers a viable, universal model that all consumers can use in the absence of prevailing infrastructure support for NFC.