Google turning mobile phone into a wallet

NEW YORK: Google unveiled a free mobile application on Thursday that turns a smartphone into an electronic wallet and is designed to replace plastic credit cards.

The Internet giant, at a press conference at its New York headquarters with financial partners Citibank, MasterCard and First Data and telecom ally Sprint, said "Google Wallet" is being field tested and will be available this summer.

Google Wallet will initially work with Google's Nexus S 4G smartphone from Sprint, the third-largest US wireless provider, and will eventually be expanded to more phones equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology.

An NFC chip embedded in a phone allows a user who has entered their credit card details to "tap-and-pay" for purchases at a checkout register equipped with the PayPass system from CitiMasterCard.

NFC technology uses short-range, high frequency wireless to enable the encrypted exchange of information between devices at a short distance.

Customers can also use a Google Prepaid card to pay for purchases, topping up the Google card with any payment card, and take advantage of Google Offers, the Mountain View, California-based company's online discount coupon program.

Google said Google Wallet will be accepted at more than 124,000 merchants in the United States at launch and more than 311,000 around the world. (APP)