Carrier to search giant: Don't even think about stealing our customers
Who could possibly be surprised by this one?
Over the last 12 months, the big forces in mobile – the operators, OEMs, platform owners and 'over the top' entities like Facebook – have been manouevring themselves into position as they await the next age of contactless mobile payments.
On the operator side – in the US – the carriers (Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) have joined forces to create the Isis project for enabling NFC payments through the SIM card or equivalent.
But then along came Google to unveil Google Wallet in September with Citibank and Mastercard. It works on NFC-enabled phones and lets customers load up with funds from credit or debit cards via the Google Wallet app.
Although any payment provider can choose to participate (in theory, the operators too), it's obvious that the carriers would view this move with proprietorial suspicion.
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So now, unsurprisingly, Verizon has ordered Samsung to remove Google Wallet from the NFC-enabled Galaxy Nexus phone.
“Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product,” a Google representative confirmed to VentureBeat.
The stakes are huge here. Even though there are many who believe NFC is over-hyped and will not deliver as expected, there are some who think that it has the power not just to replace the wallet for small items but also to act as a repository for a person's entire digital identity - becoming the location for their loyalty cards, security passes, marketing coupons and more.
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