Dive Brief:
- Verizon Wireless announced that it will support Samsung Pay on its latest smartphones and tablets with an upcoming release software update.
- All other major wireless providers approved Samsung Pay for use on their network in time for its launch last week.
- Verizon has previously blocked Google Wallet and other systems from its network to promote the now-defunct Softcard system.
Dive Insight:
Verizon has joined the pack, pledging to support Samsung Pay after blocking it and mobile payment systems that would have competed with the Softcard system. Softcard—a joint effort between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon that used near-field communication (NFC) technology to make payments—shuttered March 31.
Samsung Pay uses LoopPay’s magnetic secure transmissions (MSTs) to make payments, which are tokenized to enhance security. Samsung says that the system is compatible with 80% of magnetic-stripe readers and NFC terminals, too, making it the most flexible mobile payments system on the market.
While Samsung Pay will soon be available on all major U.S networks, it is only supported on the company’s latest smartphones and tablets: the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, and Galaxy S6 Edge+.
