OT: Cellular banking

[Mord Behar]

Well, we did it. We finally got an Android phone.
And of course the second thing my wife asked me was "Can I use this for
banking?"
We only use the online banking services from within our home network which
is (pretty) secure.
The real diference between using a mobile phone and using a laptop is that
first hop, from the device to the tower. I know that on the laptop it is
secure, there are no man in the middle attacks since I control every device
on the network (and I'm assuming that from my router to the bank there is
no MiM attack either, probably a safe assumption). But what about from the
phone to the tower? Are all communications between the phone and the tower
encrypted? Are some devices and/or carriers more secure than others? Are
some bank's apps more secure than others? How about just using the web
interface from a browser?
I know that this is only vaguely Linux-related, but I'm sure the people
here have the experience, knowledge and insight to help me out.
Thanks.
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