That works largely because service is prepaid there right? Otherwise the phone companies are essentially acting as credit providers.
Which I could totally see happening here, but having 3 or 4 phone company lenders would be nowhere near as good as having the thousands of banks that combine to make credit card products for people of all FICO scores.
I would have found better references if I had more time and google didn't keep returning results for vending machines which dispense cell phones, instead of allowing you to pay via cell phone.
I've read about that too, and it is pretty neat. I could totally see phones extending small credit lines (and maybe larger ones to customers with better credit scores) to be used that way. It will still never match the efficiency of our credit card industry though, just due to sheer numbers.
But I don't think the point about payment is true. People in Europe already buy all kinds of crap with their phones.
Everything just shows up on your phone bill, no credit cards to fuss around with.