Google, Sprint Join Mobile-Payments Arms Race

Google will announce a new mobile payments system on Thursday, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, adding even more urgency to the all-out arms-race taking place in the point-of-sale digital money space. The announcement will include news of a partnership with mobile service provider Sprint to roll out a mobile-payments system based on Near Field Communication, or NFC, technology, Bloomberg said, citing “three people familiar with the matter.”

Google had scheduled a press conference Thursday in New York. On Tuesday, company officials declined to elaborate on the announcement or comment on the Bloomberg report.

The report comes one day after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey unveiled Square Register, which will allow merchants to manage inventory and run analytics against their sales — without expensive equipment and high fees. Last week, financial services giant Visa announced plans for a digital wallet based on NFC.

NFC-fans believe the technology will become the standard format for mobile payments. Google’s plan to begin testing its own mobile-payments system was reported months ago, and will install thousands of NFC units made by VeriFone Systems at merchant locations in New York and San Francisco.