SALT LAKE CITY: A joint venture between three of America's four largest cell phone carriers will soon offer the nation's first commercially available mobile fare payment program to a public transportation system. Isis, a mobile commerce joint venture between AT and T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, announced Tuesday it will roll out the pilot program in Salt Lake City in 2012, offering an alternative to credit and debit cards for Utah Transit Authority fare payments. The industry has been talking about including Near Field Communications wireless technology in phones for years, largely to do just what Isis is proposing, turn them into “electronic wallets.” But beyond a few trials, not much has come to fruition except in places like Japan where a similar technology is in place and most cell phones are equipped with the needed chips. The Isis program is also set to work for point-of-sale purchases at retailers in the area. “This is the evolution of moving off of plastic,” Isis CEO Michael Abbott said in an interview Tuesday. “This is the future of payments.” Abbott said the idea is to eventually make Salt Lake City, and other cities across America, places where consumers don't need to carry their wallets anymore, communities where your cell phone is as good as cash or credit. The idea sounds simple: Hop a train, swipe your phone, payment made. Grocery shopping? No cash? No problem.
