The Isis joint venture has disclosed it will miss its deadline for launching its much-anticipated two-city NFC trial in the U.S., blaming small problems that it says could prevent it from “getting the customer experience right.”
The launch of the Isis Wallet trial in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas, will now be moved back until at least October. The joint venture, which was formed in late 2010 by mobile carriers AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, had set the deadline for launching the pilot this “summer,” which would have given it until the end of next week.
The venture said it would provide an update on the launch plans next month, and it's possible the project will launch in October.
There are a number of huge issues...
1) Lack of devices supporting NFC ( no real base; have to put a limited amount of handsets in hands of trial participants which takes time - imagine trying to pry an iPhone out of a consumer's hands to give them something different).
2) Lag in working issues between the carriers/corporations (takes longer to get things done).
3) Engaging the financial institutions.
4) lying in operational support (Care).
These are only a few and far from trivial. You need a crack team to get this done on time, on budget, and monitoring/resolving trial results to roll back into the business case. To have that all together is a major feat. Carriers don't often pull it off.