Verizon and Mastercard ink deal to bring 5G contactless payments to everyone

Mastercard and Verizon announced this week they will collaborate to expand 5G contactless payments availability to as many consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses as possible in the coming years.

The partnership between the two companies aims to enable businesses to use emerging technologies to turn smartphones or connected devices (i.e. smartwatches) into commerce-enabled devices, including Tap on Phone, which allows any business to provide new and best contactless consumer experiences.

The collaboration between Mastercard and Verizon will also ensure that more people are using their smartwatches to pay for their purchases, as well as facilitate touchless retail like Amazon Go stores.

Under the agreement, Verizon will take advantage of Mastercard's Bill Pay Exchange real-time messaging network to enable enhanced communication between consumers and businesses. As a result, Verizon will be able to streamline bills paid via digital banking channels, digitize paper bills and provide a mobile solution, thus reducing costs and enhancing the payment experience for the carrier's customers.

Additional targets of the partnership include the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and Mobile Edge Computing in retail. The collaboration between Mastercard and Verizon on 5G contactless payments is expected to bring all these improvements by 2023.