Sprint Mobile Wallet Brings Payments to Mobile Phone Customers

Sprint is moving into the mobile payments space with Thursday's announcement of the cell phone provider's upcoming Sprint Mobile Wallet capability.

The nation's fourth-largest mobile phone provider says its new service, set to launch in mid-November, is the first payment solution of its kind from a U.S. carrier. Customers can pay through Visa, Mastercard and Amazon Payments accounts among others, by using a universal PIN. Customers don't have to reenter credit card information with each purchase, but rather select a Sprint Mobile Wallet option at checkout, enter their PIN and select either a payment method or account.

Rather than carrier billing, the Sprint Mobile Wallet acts as a secure container to facilitate payments through traditional methods. The product was developed with Sprint partner CardinalCommerce, a payments service provider.

Sprint Mobile Wallet was one of several announcements the mobile phone provider made during its developer conference in Santa Clara, Calif. The carrier served some 48.8 million customers through the third quarter of 2010.