Google And Visa Team Up On Global Mobile Payments

[george]

Google and Visa team up on mobile payments

(Reuters) - Google Inc has enlisted Visa Inc in its effort to push mobile payments, striking an agreement to allow Visa account-holders to pay for store purchases with their smartphones.

Visa comes onboard a "Google Wallet" project already supported by Citigroup, MasterCard, Sprint Nextel Corp and First Data. In May, the group announced a trial of a system that lets shoppers store money on phones and pay at checkout.

Rival Isis, a venture between Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA, has already signed partnerships with all the major card networks, including MasterCard and Visa.

But while Sprint announced the launch of the Google Wallet service on Monday, Isis has said its rival service will not launch until early next year.

Google's system competes with plans by other top U.S. banks and mobile phone companies and employs near-field communication (NFC) technology, used widely in Asia.

On Monday, Google and Visa said the Internet search leader had received a worldwide license to Visa's "paywave" -- similar to Mastercard's PayPass -- enabling its installation on Android smartphones. Customers link their credit or debit bank accounts to Android phones with the Google Wallet app installed.

They can then tap their phones -- which come with an NFC chip -- at specially installed terminals at checkout to effect a purchase.

"This agreement extends Google Wallet to Visa account holders worldwide," said Stephanie Tilenius, Google's vice president of Commerce and Payments.

"This is a crucial step toward realizing our shared vision for the future of mobile commerce."

For U.S. banks, mobile payments are a way to wean their customers off the use of cash and generate more revenue. Merchants pay banks a fee every time a shopper buys something with a credit or debit card and Google said it would not take a cut of those fees from the new pay-by-phone system.

-- Reuters 2011-09-20

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I wonder how many of those NFC reader terminals are present anywhere in Thailand retail at present??? How many fingers do I have on one hand???

[lomatopo]

I wonder how many of those NFC reader terminals are present anywhere in Thailand retail at present??? How many fingers do I have on one hand???

Actually you might be surprised, unless you've got several million fingers on one hand!

I'm sure you've seen RFID readers everywhere here? These can work with NFC/RFID-equipped hand-sets, which are really the short-straw you were grasping at?

The Google Nexus S has RFID HW, and the SGS2 for AT&T and T-Mo have the RFID HW, but the SGS2's elsewhere do not. So it's really an end-point issue rather than a reader/terminal issue.

[FarangBuddha]

I am not really sure what the benefit of having a wallet in my phone would be...I mean, a slim piece of plastic in my wallet is pretty convenient. Seems to me another case of a solution in search of a problem.

[lomatopo]

I am not really sure what the benefit of having a wallet in my phone would be...I mean, a slim piece of plastic in my wallet is pretty convenient. Seems to me another case of a solution in search of a problem.

People probably said the same thing about credit cards when they were first introduced? "Why do I need 15 pieces of plastic when slim pieces of paper are pretty convenient?"

Given that the credit card companies are in on this, and there are millions of readers already deployed, it may end up just being a solution? Certainly being able to consolidate reward/loyalty/coupon/transpo/payment cards and accounts onto one device would be a significant benefit for many people. And it would be potentially more secure than your wallet?

Edited September 21, 2011 by lomatopo

[nikster]

I wonder how many of those NFC reader terminals are present anywhere in Thailand retail at present??? How many fingers do I have on one hand???

Actually you might be surprised, unless you've got several million fingers on one hand!

I'm sure you've seen RFID readers everywhere here? These can work with NFC/RFID-equipped hand-sets, which are really the short-straw you were grasping at?

The Google Nexus S has RFID HW, and the SGS2 for AT&T and T-Mo have the RFID HW, but the SGS2's elsewhere do not. So it's really an end-point issue rather than a reader/terminal issue.

Oh yeah?

I've yet to see a single place in Thailand where I could pay with my Google Wallet phone..

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Loma, I've never seen anyone "wave and pay" here in Thailand.... So where exactly are you thinking that NFC purchasing-method capability exists right now, assuming the purchaser had a NFC-capable mobile?

BTW, if you read below, seems you ought to be investing in Nokia stock in this regard....

Some interesting background:

Globally, 100 million people use mobile payment outside the U.S., but only 3.5 million use the technology in the U.S.

• 2006 Nokia 6131 was the first NFC phone^[23]
• 2010 Samsung Nexus S: First Android NFC phone shown^[25][26]
• 2011 NFC support becomes part of the Symbian mobile operating system with the release of Symbian Anna version. ^[27]
• 
  

On November 17, 2010, after two years of discussions, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile launched a joint venture intended to develop a single platform on which technology based on the Near Field Communication (NFC) specifications can be used by their customers to make mobile payments. The new venture, known as ISIS, is designed to usher in the broad deployment of NFC technology, allowing NFC-enabled cell phones to function similarly to credit cards for the 200 million customers using cell phone service provided by any of the three carriers throughout the United States.

Alternative Form Factors

To realize the benefits of NFC in cellphones not yet equipped with built in NFC chips a new line of complementary devices were created. MicroSD and UICC SIM cards were developed to incorporate industry standard contactless smartcard chips with ISO14443 interface, with or without built-in antenna. The microSD form factor with built-in antenna has the greatest potential as bridge device to shorten the time to market of contactless payment and couponing applications, while the built in NFC contollers gain enough market share.

Edited September 22, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK