Wireless Technology

Michael Carroll | November 17, 2010

Just as Google has begun talking up contactless payments via Android, three of the biggest US operators have announced a nationwide mobile wallet service.

AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless unveiled their Isis joint venture Tuesday, promising to deliver a point-of-sale mobile payment network across the country within 18 months.

GE Capital veteran Michael Abbott will head up the venture, which will provide contactless payments using near field communication (NFC) technology to their combined 200 million subscribers.

“We plan to create a mobile wallet that ultimately eliminates the need for consumers to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes,” Abbott said.

Isis’ mobile payment network will be based on Discover Financial Services current infrastructure, used by 7 million US retailers.

Credit card firm Barclaycard, a pioneer of NFC-based contactless payments, will be the first issuer. Barclaycard had deployed 80 of the 10 million contactless payment terminals in service by end October and will also likely handle the financial risk management.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an industry conference Monday that the latest version of Android, due to debut in a few weeks, would contain NFC technology, New York Times reported.

He demonstrated the service using “an unannounced device” – believe to be the next-gen Nexus phone. He said mobile payments “could replace your credit card” because the credit card industry believed the NFC chip was more secure than today’s cards.

Isis will go head-to-head with rival mobile payment services being developed by Visa, MasterCard and American Express, WSJ.com notes.

Take up of contactless payment technology in the US has been slow to date, with only 150,000 retailers on-board at present, Reuters reports.

A recent study of 2,000 US consumers conducted for mobile research agency mobileSQUARED found that 7.5% are happy making purchases on their mobile phone, though a further 6.6% said they would only spend up to $10.