A joint venture between three of the four largest wireless cell phone carriers will soon bring a mobile payment program to Utah’s public transportation system.
The move marks the first commercially available mobile fare payment offering in the United States.
Isis, a mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, announced Tuesday it will roll out the pilot program in Salt Lake City in 2012, offering an alternative to credit and debit cards for Utah Transit Authority fare payments.
Isis chose Salt Lake City because its transit system, run by the Utah Transportation Authority (UTA), is already equipped with near-field communication (NFC)— the key to their mobile-payment system. A second pilot city is also planned, which likely will be Austin, Texas, says NFC Times.
The program is also set to work for point-of-sale purchases at retailers in the area.
Isis plans to launch commercial services in 2012, in conjunction with Discover and Baclays bank. Sprint says it will launch a different NFC system this year.
While Isis intends on taking a percentage of each transaction, Sprint may share in the revenue from sales off coupons sent to its customers’ handset or targeted advertising.
Isis is one of many efforts underway to bring NFC and mobile payments to the U.S. In addition to
Sprint, both American Express and MasterCard are also spearheading efforts into NFC.
In November 2010, Sprint unveiled Mobile Wallet, a solution enabling subscribers to use buy physical and digital products directly from their phones, entering a universal PIN code and billing purchases to their existing Visa, MasterCard and Amazon Payments accounts. Sprint says Mobile Wallet is not a carrier billing mechanism, instead calling it a “container” for on-the-go customers to leverage traditional payment methods.
Google is also teaming up with MasterCard and Citigroup to embed technology in Android mobile devices and Apple is expected to have it this summer.
Tap-and-go handsets may allow for other transactions, such as those at vending machines, parking meters and transit ticket gates, Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson wrote in a March 31 report. A report issued this month by the Federal Reserve cited industry estimates that there were 70 million contact-less devices, including credit and debit cards, and 150,000 contact-less readers installed by merchants in the U.S.
Michael Koploy, a Market Analyst for Software Advice, says;
Protecting ewallets will not be all that different from protecting credit or debit cards. Consumers should only use the technology at stores and websites they trust. At the same time, they must take precautions to ensure their phones are secure: upgrade operating systems and applications as needed; password protect phones and applications; and know how to disable a phone if it is lost or stolen.
In other (transportation) news, Roadify won the grand prize in the NYC government-sponsored “Big App Compeitition.” The mobile app allows users to “give’ or “receive” information about bus arrival times, thus allowing the wisdom of the crowd to give faster, more accurate, and more true-to-life bus arrival times.
Other winning apps in the competition included; BestParking (takes the hassle out of finding parking in Manhattan), Weeels (makes it easier to order and share car services and taxis), DontEat.at (get a text message when you check into a restaurant that is at risk of being closed for health code violations), NextStop (an iPhone app for New York City Subway riders), cultureNOW: (a Guidebook for the Museum Without Walls, Lower Manhattan) and others.
ComScore says that as of the end of February, one third of all smartphone users in the U.S. were using Android-powered smartphones, with smartphone penetration now approaching 30 percent of all mobile handsets.
There are now 5 billion wireless users in the world. Wireless communication is now available to every location, age and income level in the world. It is becoming a basic staple like food, clothing and shelter. It’s the biggest stage ever conceived.
Related Dailywireless articles include; Google + MasterCard & CitiGroup for Mobile Payment?, Mobile Payment Spreading , Visa: Near Field Communications, iPhone NFC?, Geo Tours, Developer Contests, Apps for The City,
