With the official launch of Samsung’s mobile payment service just over a month away, not all US carriers are onboard. Samsung has revealed that Verizon, the country’s largest wireless provider, has yet to announce support for Samsung Pay. For Verizon’s part, all the company will say is that they are “in the process of evaluating” the service. Yes, there is still ample time for Verizon to join hands with Samsung (and the other US wireless carriers) in offering the mobile payment method, but given Verizon’s pledge to support Android Pay immediately after it was announced, I am skeptical. Verizon has a history of blocking proprietary features that only a few handsets would benefit from; the company blocked Google Wallet for years. It will be interesting to see if Samsung might be pushed to support Android Pay (in the US at least) if Verizon doesn’t allow the handset maker’s proprietary payment system.
The news of Verizon blocking a service to users on its network may make you wonder how that is possible. Anytime there is a software update to a mobile device, the carrier needs to test and approve it before it launches. Whether an Android or iOS device,
this must occur. Apple’s process is much simpler than Android’s though. With Apple controlling the software, hardware, and having agreements with the carriers that they cannot alter the software (i.e. install their own bloatware), there are very few variables to slow down updates. The company runs carrier tests in the background as they are completely development work on the software. This allows them to simultaneously launch updates across all carriers and all iOS devices. For Android though, since Google only creates the software, after the software is completed every component and chip maker has to ensure compatibility, every handset maker has to customize the software, and every handset has to tested by the carrier. Without agreements in place to not touch the software, the carrier also has the opportunity to add company specific bloatware and remove features that they don’t like. While there are new regulations in place to ensure that carriers cannot block handset features, there are also loop holes around those. It is possible that a lawsuit could be filed against Verizon to challenge the possible blocking of Samsung’s mobile payment service, but this would likely be done by a consumer group as it would be hard to imagine Samsung making such a move against a large carrier.
