If it's just digital IOUs to WU itself then I guess regular fees will apply, unless it's a premium service and fees are higher.
I mean purely based on the speculators..... what if the investors in XRP realise that it's entirely possible that Ripple Labs might licence out the technology rather than add institutions to the existing network ?
Either is a win for Ripple and brings money in to the company.
Yes, sure. But I meant their project with or without XRP.
Ripple can't handle those kinds of transfers atm(not talking technically, but economically.... i think?). In BTC you have people buying and selling BTC on such a scale that you can buy it in one country and sell it in another country and get roughly the same sum back(unless we're talking many millions). So how will ripple/wu transfer the wealth?