Sprint, Google Turn Android Smartphones Into Wallets

Overland Park, Kan. – Sprint partnered with Google for the
summertime launch of a near field communication technology (NFC) that turns
Android smartphones into a wallet.

 Sprint will be the
first carrier to participate in the

Google
initiative

through its currently available NFC-equipped

Nexus
S 4G

, an Android 2.3 smartphone that people can use to “tap and pay,” the
companies said. The carrier, however, will also provide Google Wallet in
additional Android phones in the future, and it said it is also “actively
working with others” in the mobile-payment industry to bring additional mobile
payment services to consumers.

  At launch, Google Wallet will
support payments via

PayPass

–

eligible MasterCard cards from Citi and via planned
Google prepaid cards. “We will support additional payment options as soon as we
are able to do so,” Google said.

  Google is working with First Data, which
enables over-the-air provisioning of payment card credentials to Google Wallet,
to reach out to more merchants to offer compatible contactless payments.

 For now, 124,000
merchants nationally are participating in Google Wallet, which also enables
users to redeem offers for Google services and to scan loyalty card information
with a single tap.

Eventually, Google said, Google Wallet will “hold many if not all of the
cards you keep in your leather wallet today.” In addition, “eventually your
loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys
will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet,” the company claimed.

For
security, users must enter a PIN on their phone before making a purchase.
That’s layered on top of Android phones’ lock screen.

In addition,
Google Wallet stores encrypted payment card credentials inside the phone on a
Secure Element computer chip, which is separate from the phone’s memory and is
described as essentially a separate computer capable of running programs and
storing data. MasterCard’s

PayPass

encryption technology is designed to
protect Google’s payment card credentials as they are transferred from a phone
to a contactless reader.