CELLPHONE users can soon flash their gizmos to pay for movie tickets at Cathay cinemas and about 1,000 other outlets, in the latest mobile payment trials carried out by SingTel and Nets.

Instead of whipping out cash or a credit card, more than 200 trial users can simply tap their newfangled Nokia phones on a reader at the cashier.

The public tests will start from March next year, revealed SingTel and Nets on Tuesday. The companies are testing the technology with their staff now.

If things go well, the 'tap and go' service may be rolled out to the masses by the middle of next year.

Besides movie tickets, users can use their phones to pay for, say, groceries at Cheers and FairPrice Xpress, karaoke bills at K Box and food at Yoshinoya restaurants.

Nets chief executive officer Poh Mui Hoon said the phones will also be used in MRT and buses by 2010, when Nets' and EZ-Link's stored value cards are to be used interchangeably.

Details for Singapore's latest bid to jumpstart mobile payment came just a day after StarHub and EZ-Link revealed they were also embarking on a similar trial to let users pay for bus and train rides by tapping their phones on fare gates.