The Wall Street Journal and The Register both are reporting that Isis...Isisn't
The venture known as Isis, formed by AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, initially aspired to set up its own payments network and collect fees on every transaction. Customers would maintain accounts directly with their wireless carrier, rather than with a credit card company.The biggest U.S. wireless carriers are scaling back a joint venture for mobile payments that they originally hoped would compete with Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., reaffirming the traditional credit card companies' clout in the nascent market for mobile transactions.Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704740604576301482470575092.html#ixzz1LOapNPr1
Isis was set up last year, and backed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, who had planned to create their own payment platform and logo for a proximity payment system base on Near Field Communications. The idea was to use terminals owned by the Discover Card to take the payments, and create a viable alternative to Visa or Mastercard. But citing "people familiar with the matter" the Wall Street Journal reports that merchants didn't like the idea of a new player, and Isis has now downgraded its aspirations to acting as a gatekeeper verifying applications from those companies with whom it had planned to compete <>
