ISIS Mobile Payments To Start In Austin

Being able to "tap and pay" with your smartphones will be widespread next year according to the predictions of Google exec Eric Schmidt. The company has begun rolling out its Google Wallet mobile payment system after last month's announcement. And to keep up, competing mobile payment service ISIS—a joint venture between AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile—is speeding up the delivery of its system, now set to start in Austin, TX.

ISIS will deliver a similar NFC-based mobile wallet system that links your existing Visa, MasterCard, or other major credit card with your mobile account. Originally, the group had greater ambitions to completely replace conventional credit card networks with its own comprehensive offering that would make revenue both on transaction fees and ads. This would essentially mean competing head-to-head against Visa and MasterCard. Plus, Visa announced its own plans for mobile payments.

They have since had to scale back possibly realizing the clout of Visa and MasterCard and also to roll out their service quicker. ISIS had previously announced that their first trial city would be Salt Lake City, making Austin the second city to be announced for their trial program set to start within the first half of 2012. Austin residents will be able to use ISIS-enabled NFC handsets to tap and pay at participating store.

[via Electronista]