Sprint and Google announced the rollout of Google Wallet to all Nexus S 4G customers, an app that enables consumers to transform their phones into their wallets and make purchases by tapping their phones at the point of sale (POS).

Sprint is the first carrier and Nexus S 4G is the first phone in the United States to deliver Google’s solution. The new service currently only works with Citi MasterCard accounts and Google Prepaid MasterCard and is available at “hundreds of thousands of participating retailers, including American Eagle Outfitters, the Container Store, Macy’s, Foot Locker and Subway,” according to a press release.

Google Wallet requires users to set up a Google Wallet PIN that must be entered before making a purchase to prevent unauthorized access and payments.

“Shipping Google Wallet to Sprint is a crucial first step in creating a new way for people to use their phones to make shopping faster and easier,” said Osama Bedier, vice president of payments at Google, in the press release. “The world is on the brink of the next big shift in payments, and today’s announcement demonstrates that we’re making real progress in attaining the vision we share with our partners for a new and innovative mobile payments platform. We believe this is just the beginning of a transformation that’s soon to come.”

Eligible Sprint Nexus S 4G customers will be prompted to download the latest version of the Android software. Once this download is complete, customers can launch the Wallet app to try it.

Google said yesterday that it will add additional partners to its Mobile Wallet service in the near future. The company has received NFC specifications from Visa, Discover and American Express, meaning users will be able to add those cards to their mobile wallet soon.

Sprint has teamed with Google in deference of signing on with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile in the ISIS initiative, which also aims to enable NFC-based mobile payments. ISIS promises trials in limited markets by mid-2012.

Nokia’s $70 million investment in Obopay earlier this year appears to be paying off. Or, at least, that would be the idea behind Nokia’s introduction today of Nokia Money, a system for sending money to other people by using a mobile phone as well as paying merchants for goods and services.

There’s no mention of the system coming to the United States. But worldwide, Nokia is building a network of Nokia Money agents, whereby consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts. The service will be shown for the first time at Nokia World on Sept. 2 and 3 in Stuttgart, Germany, and Nokia plans to roll it out gradually to selected markets beginning early next year.

“We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long-term growth potential,” said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and chief development officer at Nokia, in a press release. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services, she added.

Nokia notes that with more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with financial services.

Nokia Money is based on Obopay’s mobile payment platform, and Nokia expects the service will be open and interoperable with other payment services.

Ready to go live in the Autumn of 2006, mBlox claims to be the first company to announce its successful accreditation on Vodafone and Orange to the new UK mobile internet billing scheme PayForIt.

The PayForIt scheme, run by all the UK mobile operators, will mean that consumers can buy content with their mobile phones just by clicking on a “Pay” button on a WAP page. It will offer an easier buying process with better consumer protection than existing methods of buying from a WAP page using premium SMS. Premium SMS content purchases were worth over Р?500m in the UK in 2005, and with the increasing use of the mobile internet, PayForIt is expected to grow the mobile content market considerably.

The PayForIt scheme protects consumers by ensuring that crucial interactions with the customer regarding the purchase are not handled by the content provider, but instead by a trusted intermediary company, known as an accredited payment intermediary. Companies will no longer be permitted to process WAP or mobile internet billing transactions if they are not accredited.

mBlox is one of a small handful of companies who have now successfully achieved accreditation on Vodafone and Orange. This means that mBlox has demonstrated the highest levels of integrity, security and reliability in its operations, earning it the right to process some of the first mobile internet transactions in the UK when the scheme goes fully live in Autumn 2006. The other operators have not launched their accreditation process yet that is expected to begin within the next two months. Andrew Bud

Last month, it was announced that mBlox had made a major investment in technology from carrier systems vendor Valista, which will be used to deliver the UK PayForIt service and similar services around the globe.

“We are enthusiastic supporters of PayForIt” said Andrew Bud, mBlox Executive Chairman . “Our major investment in this new technology will offer our customers the same seamless, international solution for mobile internet payments that they currently use for premium SMS services. We think that PayForIt, with its greater transparency and improved security, will earn consumer confidence and power new growth in this market.”