Carriers ready $100M war chest for mobile payments venture

The strongest venture from within U.S. carrier ranks in m-commerce is doubling down, if you will, on its collective bet to the tune of $100 million.
Verizon Wireless (VZ), AT&T Inc. (T) and T-Mobile USA Inc. (DTEGY) are gearing up to invest at least that amount in their joint venture, according to Bloomberg.
The mobile payments space is crowded. Indeed, money is flowing in to m-commerce, but how much is coming out?
The carrier alliance pits three of the four top carriers against Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), the lone tier-one holdout, which has anchored its mobile-payment strategy to Google Inc. (GOOG) for now. It almost seems like Sprint is taking a different path on purpose. But over time, Sprint’s openness mantra could lead it toward taking a stake in Isis with all the other major U.S. carriers.
The new cash infusion in Isis comes almost four months after the venture abandoned plans to build a proprietary mobile commerce network with Discover Financial Services (DFS) and Barclays Plc (BARC). Since then Isis has brought on support from all four major credit card companies as it repositions itself into a more open mobile wallet initiative.