Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile USA plan to invest more than USD 100 million in their mobile payments venture Isis, people with knowledge of the project told Bloomberg. The amount of funding depends on how successful Isis is at attracting banks and merchants to support the mobile payments, said one of the people. Formed last year, Isis would let consumers pay for purchases with their mobile phones as well as receive and redeem coupons via their mobile devices. The service, which will debut in several cities next year, will make money by charging marketers a fee for sending offers to consumers' phones. Isis remains on track to launch in key markets, including Salt Lake City and Austin, in early- to mid-2012, Jaymee Johnson, head of marketing for Isis, said. He declined to comment on funding. The venture's owners may decide to increase the pace of the service's deployment to compete with rival mobile-payment efforts, one of Bloomberg's sources said. Google is equipping merchant cash registers to accept its Google Wallet service. Visa is supporting Isis, but also working on its own mobile-payment service.
