Hip Filipinos can now order a coffee, then pay for it with a few taps of their cellphone, no paper money, Eftpos or credit card required. The cash-free caffeine fixe comes courtesy of a new mobile commerce system co-developed by New Zealand's Fronde Anywhere.

Fronde Anywhere - a subsidiary of Fronde Systems Group - says the Philippines deal is one of its largest ever, and has the potential to become its largest if more banks and retailers come onboard.

The truly global deal saw Fronde Anywhere deal with UK developer Logica to create a new mobile commerce (m-commerce) service for i.Can, a new player in the Philippines owned by the TAO Group.

i.Can's new service lets mobile phone users pay for purchases directly from their handset, as long as they belong to one of two participating banks, Bancnet and BPI (other banks are set to come on board).

Users of the service must first download i.Can's m-commerce software to their cellphones, and register a PIN number. iCan's software lets people order products, then pay for them over the cellular network, directly debiting their account at a participating bank.

The Fronde-developed service can also be used to browse products. For example, the i.Can cellphone applet includes menus for Figaro, a Philippines coffee chain that is conducting a pilot with the new m-commerce service.

iCann COO Concepcion Octaviano says his company is targetting 12 to 25-year-olds, the demographic most likely to be early adopters of m-commerce.

Fronde developed i.Can's product, in part, with funding from the government's $500 million FRST (Foundation for Research, Science and Technology). The company has deployed similar mobile phone based services in New Zealand, and the UK, France, Germany and South Africa.

Fronde Anywhere CEO Caroline Dewe tells NBR the company will announce at least two more substantial m-commerce deals over January and February. Since the i.Can pilot went live in the Philippines, Fronde Anywhere has had a flurry of interest from overseas banks, Ms Dewe says.

Under the terms of its i.Can deal, Fronde Anywhere will not clip the ticket on cellular transactions. But Fronde Anywhere did get an upfront payment, and will receive additional revenue for every merchant that follows Figaro in signing on to i.Can's m-commerce service, says Ms Dewe.

Fronde Anywhere's parent company, Fronde Systems Group, recently announced a $1 million profit for the six months to September 30, turning around a $3 million loss for the same period last year. In August, Fronde became the New Zealand agent for Google's business enterprise services.