Competing wireless carriers are coming together for a common cause: Mobile commerce. AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced a joint venture to build a national mobile-payments network.
Dubbed Isis, the initial focus of the group is to build a mobile-payment network that uses mobile phones to make point-of-sale purchases. By tapping into a combination of smartphone and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, Isis is essentially setting out to modernize payments.
“Our mobile-commerce network, through relationships with merchants, will provide an enhanced, more convenient, more personalized shopping experience for consumers,” said Michael Abbott, CEO of Isis. He is the former CMO of General Electric’s GE Capital group.
“While mobile payments will be at the core of our offering, it is only the start,” Abbott added. “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.”
Credit-Card Wars?
Together, Isis’ founding members provide wireless services to more than 200 million consumers. When complete, those customers will have the opportunity to use a mobile-payment network undergirded by Discover Financial Services. Barclaycard U.S. is expected to be the first issuer on the network, offering multiple mobile-payment products.
“We believe the venture will have the scope and scale necessary to introduce mobile commerce on a broad basis. In the beginning, we intend to fully utilize Discover’s national payment infrastructure as well as Barclaycard’s expertise in contact-less and mobile payments,” Abbott said. “Moving forward, Isis will be available to all interested merchants, banks and mobile carriers.”
Visa and MasterCard are building their own mobile-payment networks. And American Express is the brains behind Sprint Nextel’s prepaid wireless strategy.
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