Isis mulling overseas expansion

US operator-led NFC payments project is thinking about it.

The JV comprising AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless told Bloomberg that the global footprint of its founders (Verizon is part owned by Vodafone and T-Mobile by Deutsche Telekom) would give it scope to expand internationally. Its tech and payments partners - Gemalto, American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa - are similar pan-national.

Jaymee Johnson, Isis spokesperson, said: “The underlying equity partners in Isis give us some degree of visibility and awareness beyond the US.”

Isis was created last year as a scheme to enable subscribers of the three networks to load up NFC-enabled phones with cash, which can they use to pay for goods at retailers with a suitably compatible reader.

It was originally conceived as a proprietary network using its own payments tech to collect and share out payments, and charge fees on every transaction.

But in May it scaled back its ambitions in favour of hosting a mobile wallet as a repository for multiple partners and thus opening up their existing in-store infrastructure.