AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon partner on Isis mobile payment project

AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless want to replace your wallet with a smart phone.

The companies — three of the country’s largest mobile carriers — are partnering to create a mobile commerce network to allow customers across the country to make purchases with just a wave of an iPhone or Android.

Isis, the joint venture they created for the project, will be headed by Michael Abbot, a former financial executive with GE Capital.

The system will use near-field communication technology, which passes encrypted information between devices at close range but doesn’t require contact.

“While mobile payments will be at the core of our offering, it is only the start,” Abbot said in a statement. “We plan to create a mobile wallet that ultimately eliminates the need for consumers to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes.”

Over the next year and half, the venture will be rolled out in “key geographic markets,” Isis executives said, eventually becoming available to all merchants, banks and wireless service providers. The company is keeping mum on the details of where and when the system will be available, citing competitive and security concerns.

“Everybody wanted this thing yesterday,” Abbot said. “We’ll deliver it when it’s ready and not a second before.”

Isis will be hooked up with Discover Financial Services’ payment network, currently offered by more than 7 million U.S. merchants. Barclaycard US is expected to be the first issuer. The first phase of the project will offer a credit option, as well as debit and prepaid alternatives.

Mobile payment systems are already popular in Japan and other countries. Isis is likely to have competition here — card companies such as Visa and Mastercard have also been testing mobile phone payment systems. In the spring, PayPal released an iPhone application that allows users to share money by tapping two phones together.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google Inc., said Monday that the newest Android mobile operating system, available soon, will include near-field communications technology.

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com