Google in deal to fuel growth of its mobile payment service

New York -- The mobile payments war continues to heat up. In a post on its blog, Google said it partnering with the three of the nation’s largest wireless carriers — AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — to bring its Google Wallet mobile payment app to their Android phones later this year.



Google also said it has purchased some technology and intellectual property from payments firm Softcard (formerly known as Isis) to make Google Wallet better.



Google said the Wallet app will include “tap and pay” functionality and come on phones running the two latest versions of the Android operating system, Lollipop and Kit Kat.



The Google Wallet app stores a consumer's credit or debit card information and allows shoppers to pay for goods by tapping their phone against a special terminal at a retail store's checkout counter.



Google launched Wallet in 2011, but the service struggled to become a hit with consumers, in part because the wireless carriers developed the competing Softcard service.



The competitive landscape shifted in October, when Apple included the Apple Pay mobile payment service with the new iPhone 6 line of smartphones.