Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile financial services were making the headlines yet again last week. Not once. Not twice. No, we noticed at least three separate (and all pretty big) stories to talk about.

First came Nokia’s planned withdrawal from its mobile money service, which will leave around a million people in India looking for a new mobile wallet.

London Underground and Virgin Media are planning to introduce WiFi internet access to over 80 Tube stations by the summer. By the end of the year, up to 120 stations are expected to have WiFi access.

The service will be free when it launches; it’s then expected to become a chargeable service although live TfL travel information will remain free.

Visa and Samsung have revealed the official mobile payment application for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will make its public debut next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The payment application uses Visa’s payWave NFC-based contactless payment technology.

Mobile Marketing magazine has an exclusive statement from Gareth Powell, Transport for London’s director of strategy and service development, in which he says London Underground expects to have WiFi service in place in time for this summer’s Olympic Games.

Last March, London Underground invited telecoms companies to tender for providing public WiFi service in tube stations by June 2012. The winning bidder was originally expected to be announced last year.

A man from Harrow has been fined and given an evening curfew after pleading guilty to wasting police time.

Pedro Barreto had claimed his mobile phone was stolen during a mugging last November but later admitted making up the story in order to claim on his phone insurance.