Challenging the likes of Visa and MasterCard, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are effectively planning to turn consumer smartphones into credit cards. Sources tell
Bloomberg that the two largest U.S. mobile carriers may work with Discover
Financial Services and Barclays Plc to test a system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities that would let consumers purchase products with the contact-less wave of a smartphone.
"The trial would be the carriers' biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. and supplant more than 1 billion plastic cards in American wallets," writes Bloomberg. To date, "Smartphones have
encroached on tasks ranging from Web browsing to street navigation and now may help the phone companies compete with San Francisco-based Visa and MasterCard." The carriers have been searching for a
chief executive officer. According to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter, Visa and MasterCard handled $2.45 trillion -- or 82% -- of U.S. consumer spending on general-purpose cards last year.
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