Isis, Mobile Payment App Made By 3 Credit Card Companies, Launches In Austin And Salt Lake City

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Isis, a venture of three of the top U.S. mobile providers, said on Monday it has kicked off its much-delayed mobile payments service in two U.S. cities and promised that as many as 20 phone models would support the service by year end.

Isis, formed by Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA, is a mobile wallet service that allows consumers to make payments by waving their phone at a check-out terminal, instead of using a plastic card.

Isis was initially expected to launch services in its first markets in the first half of this year, but first changed its launch target to the summer 2012, and the last month said the service would be delayed further.

Starting on Monday the company said the service was available in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah, with support for the service on nine different handset models.

The service will work on payment cards from American Express, Capital One as well as an Isis cash card.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. T-Mobile USA is owned by Deutsche Telekom.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Leslie Adler)