Banks hold a huge amount of data about you, which would be great for you to have easy access to. Most banks allow you to view some of this information through their sites after going through multiple checks to ensure you're you; but so far none that I know of have opened up an API to allow you to pull data into your app to grab complete sets of data, analyse your spending habits and thus better adjust them.
Most cards have been upgraded to use Chip and Pin, which offers some level of security. However the old mechanism of signatures is still valid as a fallback option. Often people's signatures are inconsistent, making the need to forge them redundant and the process of checking them mere lip service security; and that's assuming the person's even bothered to sign their card.
Even when chip and pin is available and working, most people don't hide this 4 digit code, making it pretty easy for a supposed bystander to observe and remember.
Purchasing items online often still requires you to present your account details to the business you're purchasing from; which gives them all of the information they'd need to make purchases impersonating you.
An improved model would be to go somewhere you already have a trusted relationship (i.e. to your bank's site) and ask them to pay the vendor from your account; thus the supplier receives payment without any way to reuse the information supplied.
This scientific discovery could lead to communications technologies which can span any distance, not be affected by physical obstructions, be completely secure (outside of anything based on the devices themselves or some middle-man device on the switchboard), and has the potential to give unimaginable data transfer rates (limited only by the technology interpreting the signal, as opposed to the communication signal itself).
Fixed line telecoms require more infrastructure than their wireless counterparts, as they require everything to be connected, rather fitting in base stations at ~regularly spaced intervals.
With the introduction of new mobile communications technologies, data transfer rates are becoming faster via wireless than by (some types of) wired connections.
Mobile Telecoms companies still like to play the haggling game of having you sign up to a contract, come to renew it, mention a friend gets theirs cheaper, say you'll go to a different provider, then finally get a rate you're happy with.
This process went by the wayside for most products years ago (can you imagine having a similar call with your landline provider)? Surely all those sales-people involved in this process cost the company money. So all it would take is for people to share information about what contracts they were on for everyone to become aware, adjust, and force the companies to accept certain uniform rates, focussing their efforts to attract users instead on levels of support, coverage and additional services.