Mobile
Four Major Carriers Join Google In Mobile Payments Committee
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all joining the Mobile Payments Committee along with Google and other companies to help make mobile payments better.
According to VentureBeat, the MPC is part of the trade group Electronic Transactions Association. The committee now has representatives from the four major carriers, Google, PayPal, Intuit, Verifone, and ISIS (which itself includes AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile) among others.
The goal of the MPC is to create new business strategies and policies for those involved in mobile payments. The committee wants to find a way to make all of the plethora of platforms interoperable to make it less confusing and easier for consumers. MPC wants to show businesses and their customers why mobile payments are a good thing.
Like any committee formed by major corporations, MPC will also talk to politicians about mobile payments public policy.
The formation of the committee may result is no large changes, but it could also mean AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile finally join Google Wallet. Or, more ideally, the companies involved could come up with a cross-platform solution that works on all major platforms (or at least iOS, Android, and Windows Phone) on all networks.
The only noticeable thing missing from the Mobile Payment Committee is Square. When Square partnered with Starbucks this week, the two companies formed the largest mobile payment system in the U.S.
We hope this committee comes up with a way to make mobile payments more widespread in the U.S. we know a lot of us are looking forward to using our smartphones as a credit card.