Credit firms call for ‘mobile wallets’ at cellphone trade show in N.O.

CTIA Wireless—the U.S. cellphone industry’s annual trade show that begins today in New Orleans—is drawing heavy participation, not just from those in the cellphone industry, but also from MasterCard, Visa and other companies in the business of moving money around. At a pre-show event Monday, MasterCard unveiled a suite of services to enable “mobile wallets,” secure applications that run on phones and can hold virtual payment cards, transit tickets, coupons and other valuables. The credit card companies are hoping to stake a claim in what the industry expects to be a world where cellphones take over some of the functions of regular wallets. A handful of phones can already be used on payment terminals in drugstores and fast-food restaurants, but wide adoption is probably still years away. Gary Flood, president of global products and solutions at MasterCard, is to speak at the trade show today, followed by John Partridge, president of Visa, on Wednesday. In other pre-show news in the industry, T-Mobile USA announced this morning that Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks will supply the network equipment for its new “4G LTE” network, a $4 billion project. Complete details on the trade show, which is expected to feature up to 1,000 exhibiting companies over three days, are available at its website here.