Isis, the mobile-payment joint venture backed by major U.S. carriers - AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile - is set for a September debut. The decision was taken following months of delays and a change in strategy last year.
Per latest reports, VeriFone Systems Inc., a developer of payment terminals that is working on the project, is preparing for an opening in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. The opening is slated for next month, CEO Doug Bergeron said in an interview.
Isis, which enables users to pay for items at stores using their mobile devices, had previously planned to roll out the service in the first half of 2012. However, the joint venture tweaked its strategy last year and opted for credit card companies to handle transactions rather than the carriers themselves. The delay is mostly to ensure that mobile payments are made securely.
"With the carriers on their side, they stand to have a very good chance to succeed provide the handset makers get NFC-enabled smartphones out as promised," Doug Bergeron, CEO of Verifone, told CNET in an interview.
According to Brad Duea, senior vice president of product management at T-Mobile USA, the NFC phones will provide additional security, letting carriers remotely erase a device's information if stolen. Currently, several other providers do not offer this feature.
Isis will now be competing with other players in the game, including Google and eBay, to capitalize on mobile-payment transactions. The new payment system relies on near field communication or NFC, which lets users tap their phones on a cash register to make a payment.
