M-Pesa: Mobile based cash transfer concept with 5 million subscribers in Africa

From humble beginnings, the mobile-based cash transfer service which was meant to assist unbanked marginalised groups, has today grown to become a mainstream money transfer service used by almost every economic group. Money transfer service M-Pesa, an innovative information technology product launched in East Africa, is now facing a near-classic backlash from the traditional financial industry it has disrupted.

Another article on the history behind M-Pesa: http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12213&...
I don't quite understand the differences in the model but to me this seems a cellphone-based channel for money transactions just like Paypal is a web-based medium. And Paypal has been hugely successful with co-operation rather than competition from commercial banks. The revolutionary concept behind M-Pesa is the distribution network of mobile airtime and such retailers - which are already established and far more accessible than bank branches and ATM's will be in a long time. Surely, there are many concerns related to frauds (mustn't be too hard to forge a SIM?), security of the money deposited etc. Maybe some smart business models can be worked out here for banks and M-Pesa to partner?
And of course, there is room for bringing this mobile-based financial services to India.