Word has come through Bloomberg that Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have responded to the Google Wallet project, investing $100 million collectively in an NFC mobile payment project, named Isis. While Sprint has stayed away from the project at this time, likely due to their involvement in the Wallet project, those involved in the Isis project might be best served to begin wooing the carrier to their team. In order for any mobile payment system to really succeed, it would require maximum saturation at retail outlets in order to be effective, and having two separate and distinct systems vying for control of the mobile payment market will leave consumers in the lurch like a tourist with a handful of pesos in Maine, if their preferred store doesn’t support their service.

While credit card companies are able to share space at a retail outlet, this is only due to the fact that the hardware required to accept their tender is operating on a universal platform, thus enabling retailers to accept multiple forms of payment on one terminal. they aren’t about to install (and pay for) multiple terminals to accept NFC mobile payments, dependent on the service their consumer happens to use. One universal reader that supports all NFC systems would be the realistic solution, if both major projects can come to terms on how it will be done. Ideally, one unified service would be easiest for all involved.

We reported last week that Rogers was in talks regarding an NFC mobile payment system here in the Great White North, so it’s good to see that more major carriers are recognizing the potential for the technology, embracing it as our beloved devices evolve to include NFC chips and our culture becomes ever more mobile.

[via: ReadWriteMobile]