Google teams up with 3 wireless carriers to combat Apple Pay

Google and the mobile carriers have long been at odds over mobile payments, but faced with the runaway success of Apple Pay, the two rivals have become friends. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are selling their mobile wallet joint venture Softcard to Google for an undisclosed amount, Google and Softcard revealed on Monday in separate blog posts. That’s quite a full circle to arrive at, considering that for the last three years the three operators actively blocked Wallet from their devices for their own mobile payments service. The problem was that their Softcard system was slow to arrive to market, meaning few Android phones had access to any kind of “digital wallet”. Google reportedly has had a prickly relationship with the carriers, largely because it doesn’t believe enough has been done to upgrade wireless networks so more people can spend more time online. Media reports say Google is considering selling its own wireless plans to consumers.

Google Apple Business