Google has been field testing its NFC payments service with a large group of users since late May and, from later this summer, anyone with a Nexus S 4G and a Sprint contract will be able to use their phone to make mobile payments at merchants that accept MasterCard PayPass.
Google Wallet has been on trial since the end of May with a very large group of people and is set for a commercial launch later this summer, NFC World has learned.
“I myself have been using it for months with great success,” Google global communications executive Nate Tyler told NFC World.
Preparations are now being made to make the service, announced in May, commercially available later this summer. At that point, anyone in the US with a Nexus S 4G, available through mobile network operator Sprint, will be able to switch on the Google Wallet app and use the built-in Google Prepaid Card to make payments at any merchant that accepts MasterCard Paypass contactless payments. Consumers who are also customers of Citi will at the same time be able to provision their Nexus S with a Citi MasterCard application and use it to make mobile payments.
The timing will see the Google Wallet service being placed in consumers’ hands several months ahead of rival US NFC payments service Isis which today announced it had signed deals with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. The first Isis field trials in Austin and Salt Lake City are due to go live in early to mid-2012.
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I was looking at the Isis web site, and I have to say that I am very dissappointed. I would expect a better user experience from a company that is going to stand toe to toe with Google in direct competition. It was difficult to read most of the information, due to the menu constantly covering it up. If their web site is any measure of the quality that we can expect from their product, then their competition with Google is going to be very short lived.