The Isis mobile commerce joint venture from AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless is now available to use across the USA.

It was originally announced in November 2010 and launched pilot schemes in the states of Texas and Utah last year.

Mobile payment service iZettle says American Express has joined its list of financial backers. The latest funding round already included over £20 million from MasterCard and venture capital funds including Greylock Partners, Northzone and SEB Private Equity plus initial investors Creandum and Index Ventures.

iZettle will use the funding for product development and expansion into new markets.

The Google Wallet NFC payment app, which was launched in the USA last year, has been transformed into a cloud-based service.

Google Wallet was originally only available to customers who had a Citi MasterCard credit card or the Google Prepaid debit card.

Stockholm-based mobile payment service iZettle has announced it’s now able to accept American Express cards in Sweden and Finland. The company was already able to accept MasterCard, Visa and Diners Club payments via its card reader and app. 

iZettle’s reader plugs into an iPhone or iPad and turns it into a mobile payment terminal for ‘chip and PIN’ credit cards.

The Google Wallet mobile payment application, which was announced by the company in May, is now being rolled out to customers in the USA.

It’s currently only available on the Google Nexus S 4G phone to customers who have a Citi MasterCard credit card or the Google Prepaid debit card and are using the Sprint network, although Visa, Discover and American Express are also expected to participate in the future.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

This week's podcast begins with a heated discussion about the UK government's consultation about improving mobile phone coverage.

Iain, James and Mark then move on to talk about over-the-top voice services, mobile internet usage, patent deals, the UK's next spectrum auction and wearable technology.

Leaving your wallet at home and going shopping with nothing more than your mobile phone is still a science-fiction vision of the future.

But it's getting much closer to reality, thanks to a UK-based company called Corethree. They're currently working with a number of public transport operators and have brought mobile tickets to a wide range of smartphones.

The new Microsoft Band, the Samsung Galaxy A smartphones and the Huawei Honor 6 are all discussed in this week's podcast.

We also look at some of the mobile industry's other big stories, including Amazon UK's mobile phone deals, the Lenovo purchase of Motorola Mobility, LG's quarterly results and the anticipated increase in WiFi hotspots.

We start this week's podcast with news that EE now has the largest 4G customer base in Europe, with 5.6 million UK connections.

There's also talk about a new DIY product for the Internet of Things, the disappearance of Nokia branded smartphones, quarterly results for Apple, increasing M2M connections and a growing market for smartwatches.

The new Apple iPad tablets, Google's latest Nexus devices, Android Lollipop, wearable tech from will.i.am and the world's slimmest smartphone all feature in this week's podcast.

We're also talking about free mobile data for Christmas, 4.5G technology being rolled out in the UK, 5G technology being tested in South Korea, the end of an era for webOS and video messages that self-destruct.