On Jan 21, 6:15*am, "Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

Peter Masson wrote:
[...]
Oyster was originally going to be able to be used for other low value
purchases, such as newspapers and cups of coffee, in the way that Octopus is
used in Hong Kong, but this idea fell foul of banking regulation.

Ah! I wondered about that. Yet, pay-by-cell phone doesn't. Weird.

There isn't really any pay-by-mobile (aka cell) system for paying for
products / services at the shop counter in the UK, at least not yet.