O2 has revealed that its Near Field Communication trials using the O2 Wallet have proved a complete success with 78 per cent of people saying they want one.

The O2 Wallet is a revamped Nokia 6131 featuring a Near Field Communication chip so you can use it to make contactless payments, get special offers and scrap your Oystercard.

Trials with 500 people started last November, and the feedback has been pretty good.

Nine out of ten people were happy to use NFC on their mobile phone and 89 per cent said they would be interested in buying an NFC enabled device just for the benefit of having an Oystercard on their phone.

However, O2 has learnt a lot during the six-month trial, including that it needs to offer more services to anyone using the NFC handsets and also that a revamped Nokia 6131 doesn't cut the mustard with most users.

Although there's no confirmed date for a mass market launch, Claire Maslen head of NFC at O2, said that six months is too ambitious, but five years is way too far away.

Before O2 can launch the O2 Wallet, there are a number of things that need to be considered by the network.

O2 says it needs to create a taskforce, made up of the major banks, networks, manufacturers and retailers before the technology will be ready for a major release.

Another limiting factor at the moment is the limited number of services. Before it can go on sale, NFC-based handsets need to offer more services, so in addition to be able to pay for things, use a phone as an Oystercard and get special deals, O2 wants to expand this so basically your whole life is consumed by your mobile. In the future, you will be able to scrap every single card in your wallet, including discount cards, building entry swipe cards and debit/credit cards.

Sure, this looks all good and exciting, but there's still that niggling worry that if you lose your mobile (four out of 500 trialists did in the six months), you lose everything. It's very unlikely that you're going to get a shiny new one instantly either.