As predicted, mobile payments has been widely discussed at this year's CTIA Wireless Conference and Expo in Orlando, Fla. During a pre-conference event entitled "Money Over Mobile," topics from mobile banking to credit and payments to merchant issues with mobile payments were discussed.

In a keynote to open the session, Fabio Sisinni, director of mobile payments for PayPal, discussed the role mobile will play in PayPal's future. Sisinni mentioned that based on the growth PayPal is experiencing in mobile transactions, the company's vision of "a mobile wallet in the cloud" may soon be a reality.

PayPal's growth in mobile payment transactions has grown from $24 million 2008 to $750 million last year, he said, adding that PayPal is expecting to top $7.5 billion in mobile payment transactions by 2013.

Sisinni said that for a company to do a mobile payment product well, it must first be able to do payments well, something Sisinni said PayPal has been doing well for more than a decade. Sisinni added that PayPal first started as a mobile payment company doing transactions between personal data assistants (PDAs).

According to Sisinni, the mobile wallet concept PayPal envisions would allow consumers to access their wallet anytime from anywhere using any device.

In an interview, Sisinni said the future of PayPal's mobile wallet concept is based on the company's already-established relationships with both merchants and customers, something no other company looking to create a mobile payment platform can boast. PayPal sees the mobile wallet as more than a way to make transactions, but that it will eventually evolve into a repository for stored value, including customers' loyalty programs and coupons, he said.

As far as its efforts to make PayPal available anywhere anytime, Sisinni could not discuss specifics about PayPal's plans to make its payment method available at the point of sale. He did say that PayPal is looking to connect existing PayPal merchants using the online solution through brick-and-mortar locations.

Sisinni also said that other opportunities for PayPal include making its payment method available through set-top boxes, game consoles and kiosks but that he could not discuss the specifics right now.