Isis Adds Four Credit Cards to Its Mobile Wallet
Three of the largest wireless operators in the U.S. have signed up four of the largest credit card companies to try to kick-start mobile commerce. Isis, a joint venture among AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US Inc. , has added Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express to its mobile wallet.
That means customers will be able to use those cards to make payments via Near-Field Communications (NFC)-equipped smartphones or devices when the joint venture brings the service to market, starting in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas in early 2012. (See Isis Heads to Salt Lake City.)
Why this matters
In announcing its new partners, Isis played up the openness of its approach to mobile payments. The joint venture started out only working with Discover and Barclays Bank, with plans to build its own separate payment network, but realized it had to open its doors to big-name cards and use their networks instead. (See Carriers Can't Take the Credit.) Carrier billing won't be an option for NFC-enabled payments, as the wireless operators also recognize they're better off leaving that to familiar brand names.
"Mobile commerce is tremendously complex, because you have to bring together three industries with no connective tissue -- payment, mobile and retailers/point-of-sale," Jaymee Johnson, head of marketing at Isis, told LR Mobile in a May interview. Isis's job is to bring these parties together, he said, and the carriers' job is to put NFC phones in the hands of consumers.
According to Pyramid Research , that will start happening en masse by 2014 as upcoming smartphones start including NFC chips by default. (See Here Come the NFC Phones.)
For more
Read up on the progress of mobile commerce in North America:
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile
That means customers will be able to use those cards to make payments via Near-Field Communications (NFC)-equipped smartphones or devices when the joint venture brings the service to market, starting in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas in early 2012. (See Isis Heads to Salt Lake City.)
Why this matters
In announcing its new partners, Isis played up the openness of its approach to mobile payments. The joint venture started out only working with Discover and Barclays Bank, with plans to build its own separate payment network, but realized it had to open its doors to big-name cards and use their networks instead. (See Carriers Can't Take the Credit.) Carrier billing won't be an option for NFC-enabled payments, as the wireless operators also recognize they're better off leaving that to familiar brand names.
"Mobile commerce is tremendously complex, because you have to bring together three industries with no connective tissue -- payment, mobile and retailers/point-of-sale," Jaymee Johnson, head of marketing at Isis, told LR Mobile in a May interview. Isis's job is to bring these parties together, he said, and the carriers' job is to put NFC phones in the hands of consumers.
According to Pyramid Research , that will start happening en masse by 2014 as upcoming smartphones start including NFC chips by default. (See Here Come the NFC Phones.)
For more
Read up on the progress of mobile commerce in North America:
- Verizon Tries Mobile Payments Solo
- NFC to Push $50B Over-the-Air by 2014
- PayPal Sues Google for Mobile Wallet
- Google Taps Sprint for Tap-to-Pay
- Operators Vie for SIM-Based NFC Control
- Sprint Stakes Its mCommerce Claim
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
FEATURED VIDEO
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS
February 7-9, 2023, Virtual Event
February 15, 2023, Virtual Event
March 15-16, 2023, Embassy Suites, Denver, CO
March 21, 2023, Virtual Event
May 15-17, 2023, Austin, TX
December 6-7, 2023, New York City
UPCOMING WEBINARS
February 2, 2023
DIY Data Center Automation Deep Dive: Challenges and Opportunities for CSPs, Enterprises, and Cloud Providers
February 7, 2023
Optical Networking Digital Symposium - Day 1
February 9, 2023
Optical Networking Digital Symposium - Day 2
February 14, 2023
Achieve Your Growth Potential with Next-Gen Content Delivery
February 15, 2023
Digital Divide Digital Symposium
February 16, 2023
SCTE® LiveLearning for Professionals Webinar™ Series: Getting the Edge on Edge Computing
Webinar Archive
PARTNER PERSPECTIVES - content from our sponsors
How 5G Thrives ASEAN Digital Economy
By Huawei
Capitalizing On 5G Innovation To Deliver Breakthroughs At The Edge
By Kerry Doyle, sponsored by ZTE
All Partner Perspectives
GUEST PERSPECTIVES - curated contributions
Telco vs. Cable: Who comes out on top?
By Cheenu Seshadri, Managing Partner, Three Horizon Advisors
Don't worry about the government?
By Patrick Donegan, Principal Analyst, HardenStance
All Guest Perspectives
Interestingly, MasterCard also a deal with Sprint on mCommerce services. I wonder if we'll see Sprint join Isis as well since it's so open. It'd make sense for everyone.