Google partners with wireless carriers to push Wallet service

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has partnered with several large U.S. wireless carriers to pre-install its electronic payment service on phones, as the companies seek to counter Apple Inc's recent entry into the nascent market for mobile payments.

AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless will include the Google Wallet app later this year on Android smartphones sold in the United States, Google said in a post on its official blog on Monday. Google also said it has acquired technology from Softcard, a mobile payment initiative that was created by many of the wireless carriers several years ago.

The Google Wallet app stores a consumer's credit or debit card information and allows shoppers to pay for goods by tapping their phone against a special terminal at a retail store's checkout counter.

Google launched Wallet in 2011, but the service struggled to become a hit with consumers, in part because the wireless carriers developed the competing Softcard service.

The competitive landscape shifted in October, when Apple included the Apple Pay mobile payment service with the new iPhone 6 line of smartphones.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Matthew Lewis)