Sprint Nextel users will have access to mobile payments technology next month. The company’s new mobile purchasing system will allow subscribers to link their credit cards to their smartphones, according to comments made by CEO Dan Hesse during the Sprint Mobile Wallet keynote. (via ComputerWorld). They can link Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Amazon Payments and other accounts, then authorize a purchase by entering a PIN.

It is not the only vendor to offer such as service: Bank of America is working on a project that would let customers use their smartphones to pay for purchases in stores. Consumers would install small chips in their devices that emit radio signals over very short distances and then "bump" or wave their phones with or at the point-of-sale devices in stores. Their bank account data is then collected and purchase is completed.

Also AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Discover Financial Services and Barclays are reportedly working on a project in which smartphones could be used as payment devices. Here too, contactless technology would convey the payments through Discover's payment network. Then there is Square, a venture launched by Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey last year. The company sells a tiny device that plugs into a mobile phone's headphone jack and scans swiped credit cards. With the device, a shopper can pay for a product and receive an invoice by email.

Ambassador to Change

Perhaps the biggest push in this space will come from the ubiquitous Starbucks, though. The retailer plans to use PayPal’s new Mobile Express Checkout for reloads of Starbucks Cards directly from its Starbucks Card Mobile app for iPhone and iPod Touch. Twenty percent of in-store Starbucks purchases are made via Starbucks cards, and the coffee chain hopes that using PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout will save time and money, writes Forbes. Starbucks says 71% of its customer base owns an iPhone or Blackberry. (via MediaBuyerPlanner).