A freshly issued report from Juniper Research has forecast that mobile phones will soon replace paper tickets for everything from concerts to commutes.

Mobile ticketing isn't new. EU Ticket News has mobile videos going back years on the topic. Some rail companies in the U.K. already use the system and in countries, like Japan, where mobile technology is more advanced, it's already utilized across a wide spectrum of industries including entertainment, retail and transport.

According to Juniper Research, mobile ticketing is about to take off in a big way. While just 2 billion are expected to be delivered this year, the research firm predicts this will rise to 15 billion in 2014.

"Although 15 billion sounds large, it is in fact it a small percentage of total tickets issued - there is plenty of scope for innovative solutions to penetrate this market," said Howard Wilcox, author of the Mobile Ticketing report.

The benefits of mobile ticketing are mostly associated around efficiency, versatility and security. As well as reducing the costs associated with paper-based distribution, mobile ticketing campaigns can be executed more quickly with cancellations and re-issues handled almost instantaneously.

Various forms of mobile ticketing are being developed including mobile passes and mobile reward cards.

"Next steps will see more widespread purchasing on mobiles," added Wilcox, "as well as use of NFC tickets. Currently however there are only limited examples of NFC ticketing usage outside of the Far East owing to the lack of device availability."