Skip to main content

All four major US carriers join with Google, ISIS to form Mobile Payments Committee

All four major US carriers join with Google, ISIS to form Mobile Payments Committee

/

All four major US carriers have joined with mobile payment players to form the Mobile Payments Committee, which will aim to address issues as interoperability, mobile payments lawmaking, and emphasizing the technology's benefits to consumers.

Share this story

ISIS watermarked
ISIS watermarked

We haven't gotten any closer to declaring a winner in the mobile payments landscape, but a newly joined group known as the Mobile Payments Committee hopes to at least make the whole situation a bit less confusing for consumers and industry players alike. In an interview with VentureBeat, Electronic Transactions Association CEO Jason Oxman announced the formation of the group, which includes all four major US carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon — among its membership. It's the first instance we've seen where the big four have come together to tackle mobile payments, and they aren't the only powerful players involved: Google, ISIS, PayPal, Verifone, and Intuit are cited as additional members of the committee.

Chairing the Mobile Payments Committee is Jackie Moran (executive director of federal relations at Verizon), who will attempt to help the group navigate through such issues as interoperability, mobile payments lawmaking, and emphasizing the technology's benefits to consumers.

"The idea behind the committee is to get all the players around the table, ask everyone to take off their company hats and put on their industry hats, and talk about what issues need to be resolved," Oxman told VentureBeat. Unfortunately it's impossible to say that all the key players in the mobile payments space are involved, as one crucial holdout at this point in time is none other than Square. Seeing as how yesterday's colossal deal with Starbucks instantly formed the largest mobile payments network in the US, the ETA would do well to ensure Square's participation.