Verizon furious at Google for Galaxy Nexus / Google Wallet statement [Exclusive]

Verizon furious at Google for Galaxy Nexus / Google Wallet statement

As you can probably imagine we have been reaching out far and wide to get some more information about what actually is going on with Verizon and its distinct dislike of Google Wallet. Our search revealed that Verizon execs are “livid” with Google for supposedly making a statement about whether or not Verizon intends to allow Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus. We have reported for sometime how contentious the issue of Google Wallet has been between Google and Verizon and now Verizon’s top brass is said to be spitting chips about Google going public about Google Wallet.

Verizon obviously doesn’t like having its dirty laundry displayed in public and because they are having ongoing talks with Google – which is corporate speak for attempting to keep the details under the rug – they were caught completely blind sided by Google’s statement regarding Google Wallet.

Oh, Verizon you have bigger problems than Google telling the world what you are actually doing to prevent consumers using Google Wallet to contend with in the upcoming months. Potential lawsuits for constricting the market and being accused of anti-competitive behavior, privacy suits, net neutrality problems and many other issues that have not yet hit the main media.

The Google Nexus has all the equipment needed to run Google Wallet, so what was Verizon’s statement about?

We confirmed yesterday that the Galaxy Nexus does indeed contain a secure element and we already know it has an NFC chip on board for Android Beam. This tells us that the Galaxy Nexus is capable of running Google Wallet, and Verizon’s fire fighting statement yesterday was false.

Was Google’s Galaxy Nexus / Google Wallet statement divisive? Probably, but something has to give with the Isis MNOs for NFC to reach proper adoption for firms way outside of Google’s sphere of influence who have invested millions in innovative products that use the secure element. HID Global would be just one great example of this. Thus far, Isis carriers have hurt the adoption of NFC with both Verizon and AT&T blocking most NFC capabilities in their handsets. T-Mobile has been a little better and at least enabled everything aside from card emulation mode, which is used for payments. This is why Google Wallet or other NFC mobile wallets will not install on T-Mo without hacks. Google Wallet or not, we will at least note T-Mobile is allowing its subscribers to use NFC for pairing and sharing based activities, which is more than can be said for Verizon and AT&T over recent months.

A change is coming and Google just threw the first stone. Nearly everyone we speak to in NFC payments these days is working on peer-to-peer based NFC payments solutions, which in effect leaves the carrier out of the equation. However, the secure element and card emulation is probably still the most secure way to deploy NFC mobile wallets.

Our question for Verizon execs today is this – do you really want to have Google, Apple and Microsoft band together to publicly defeat you using the power of the consumer? Or is it time to finally play nice, get your Isis house in order and deliver a truly open NFC ecosystem?

After months of us reporting from our sources about the friction between Google and Verizon because of Google Wallet, it appears Google has finally got frustrated and taken the issue somewhat public. If Verizon and other Isis members changed their model for a truly open ecosystem for NFC, we here at NFC Rumors would be the first to support them. Perhaps Google speaking out could represent the first steps to Isis members re-examining their model, again.

Verizon has been outed with regards to Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus and we can only assume the same has happened to other NFC mobile wallet services that can’t or won’t pay to play on Isis MNO networks. That is a blow for consumers and almost makes us want to remind Verizon that we, the consumers, are the 99%. In fact, we may just camp outside their offices around the country, because if there is anything that is out of fashion here in the good ‘ole USA at the moment, it’s corporate greed (we know that’s bad). Google Wallet or any other offering on Verizon for NFC payments this year is looking slim.